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HISTORY 



OF THE 



O'MAHONY SEPTS 

Of KINELMEKY and IVAGHA. 

(From Journal Cork Historical and jirch&ological Society.) 



BY 

Rev. canon O'MAHONY. 



CORK: 

Published by Guy and Company Limited. 
1913. 



A& 



\j 



h 



GENEALOGY OF MAHON AND HIS CORRELATIVES. 

(From Dr. J. Henthorn Todd's Ed. of Wars of the Gael and the Goill, 
With a few corrections and additions in brackets [ ]). 



CoRC, King of Munster (circ. a.d. 420), fourth in descent from Eoghan M6r, 
ancestor of the Eoghanacht Clans, son of Olioll Olum. 



Natfraich, K.M. 

Aongus, K.M. 

Fedhlimidh. 

Criomhthann. 

Aodh Dubh [ances- 
tor of McCarthies, 
O'SuIlivans, O'Cal- 
laghans, etc.] 



1. Cas. 

2. Eochaidh (a quo 

Ui Eachach). 

3. Criomhthan. 



4. Aodh-Uargarbh. 

5. Tighernach. 

6. Fedlemidh, 

King of Mun- 
ster, A.D. 577. 

7. Fergus. 

8. B^ce (a quo 
CinelmB^ice). 

9. Ferdaleithe. 

10. Conaicce. 

11. Olioll. 

12. Cucongeilt. 

13. Concobhar. 

14. Cathniath. 

15. Spellan. 

16. Cian. 

17. Bron. 

18. Maolmuadh. 

19. CiAN (obiit.- 

1014). 

20. Mahon (obiit. 

A.D. 1038). 



4- 
5. 
6. 

;• 

8. 

9- 
10. 
II. 

12. 
13- 



Leogaire. 
Aodh Clerech 
Cairbre Rias 

trim, 

Clairenach. 
Selbach. 
Ealaithe. 
Dunlang. 
Anbleithe. 
Flaithnia. 
Aongus. 
Dubhdaboiren 

K.M. 
Domhnall 

(obiit. 1015). 
Donnchadh, 

ancestor of 

O'Donoghue. 



Maine Leamna [an 
cestor of Mor Maor 
Mar (High Steward 
of Mar), M6r Maor 
Leamna(High Stew- 
ard of Lennox), and 
of the Stewarts of 
Scotland]. 



n, 



(Mathgamhain, ancestor of Ui Mathgamhna, or O'Mahony.) 



/ . 



/ 




A History of the O'Mahony Septs of Kinelmeky 
and Ivagha. 

By Rev. Canon O'MAHONY, Glenville, Crookstown. 

HOSE who are not familiar with the arguments by which 
the general credibility of the ancient Irish annals and other 
records has been established, will doubtless conclude 
that a tribal history, commencing with the ancestor 
placed at the head of the Genealogical Table on the opposite 
page, must have been composed of legendary materials 
in its earher portion. A perusal of Dr. O'Donovan's 
Introduction to the Annals of the Four Masters, pp. xlvi. — liii., or of 
some recent and more accessible work summarizing the results of the 
researches of our antiquaries in the last century, will show that the use 
of letters was known in this country before the time of St. Patrick, that 
the practice of recording contemporary events in the form of annals is 
as old as the fifth century, and that the annalists have passed unscathed 
through the ordeal of having their entries about astronomical phenomena 
confronted with the results of scientific calculation, thus inspiring confidence 
in the accuracy .of their records of other events. That the life and 
actions of public men who flourished after the year 400 a.d. may be 
considered to fall within the authentic portion of Irish history is not 
now disputed by any critic who has earned for himself a reputation as 
a specialist in the investigation of that early period. 

The Genealogical Registers were authenticated by peculiar circum- 
stances not occurring in our time. Those registers, connecting chieftain 
and clansmen with a common ancestor in k remote past, originated from 
the exigencies of the Tribal System. The Tanist Law of succession to 
the chieftainship, and the Distribution of the Sept Land, presupposed 
the careful compilation and preservation of a tribal record. It was not 
as a. similar record of a modern family would be, stowed away in the 
family archives; its contents were, so to speak, public property. An 
Englishman who visited Ireland in 1672 writes: "The people in general 
are great admirers of their pedigree, and have got their genealogy so 
exactly by heart that, though it be two hours' work for them to repeat 
the names only from whence they are descended lineally, yet will they 
not omit one word, in half a dozen several repetitions.^ 

In countries where the tribal stage had been long since passed through 
and forgotten, and where, moreover, Annals were not in use until some 
centuries after they were commenced in this country, Irish genealogies 
beginning with the third or second century were regarded with surprise 
and distrust. But it is very significant that no such distrust was enter- 
tained by Carew and Cox, who, especially the former, were in touch 
with the tribal system while still a living reality. 

I "A Tour in Ireland," \(>']2-a,.— journal of the Cork Historical and Archaological Society, 
vol. X. p. 89. 



4 THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

When the dispossessed chieftains of South Munster and their relatives, 
in the seventeenth century, took refuge in France, Spain, and Austria, 
they were careful to take with them documentary proofs that they held 
the rank of nobles in their own land. They obtained in their adopted 
countries a recognition of their status, an indispensable requisite in 
that period of unjust monopolies, for promotion in the military and 
diplomatic services to which many of them successfully aspired. To 
comply with the condition required from Frenchmen by the Heralds of 
Louis XIV. for enrolment among- the noblesse, viz., that some one in a 
line of ancestors should have been designated by a name implying 
nobility, in a public record of a date preceding a.d. 1400, presented no 
difliculty to the exiled chiefs. But the Heralds of Louis cut off many 
centuries from their antiquity. They declined to follow the descendants 
of Core, King of Munster, to a date that would precede that accepted 
for the house of Montmorency (1028), and even that of the house of 
Bourbon (776). They would not go back to the commanders who led 
their clans to Clontarf, but arbitrarily fixed on a.d. 1200 as the limit; 
and accepting the evidence of the Irish records for the next successor 
to a chieftaincy after that date, placed in the roll of the French nobility 
"McCarthy de Reagh, 1209," and "O'Mahoni de Carbrye, a.d. 1220." 

For the compilation of a tribal history the genealogical list is, of 
course, necessary material; indeed it must be the framework, the back- 
bone of the history. But, as has been already stated, it was compiled 
for a practical and not for a historical purpose. From the point of view 
of the historian the Genealach labours under several defects. It gives no date ; 
and the time when any person mentioned in it flourished can only be known 
from his place in the pedigree compared with some historical landmark, 
or must be ascertained from some other source. It does not give the 
names of females, and thus no account is kept of the intermarriages 
between families belonging to different tribes. It does not indicate the 
names of the chiefs (as such) ; any one of them who left no son gets no 
place in the list. Only in those rare instances (as in the case of the 
Western O'Mahonys after a.d. ,1513), when succession by Tanist law 
was set aside by an influential ruler of a sept, does the genealogical list 
become also a list of chieftains. 

The important information omitted by the Ollaves and Shanachies, 
who put together the pedigrees, is supplied by the Annals, by the 
biographies of the Saints in incidental references to their contemporaries, 
and by the Bards. Fortunately it was the custom, when a name of any 
important person was mentioned by Annalist, Hagiographer, or Bard, to 
define him by giving the names of his father and grandfather, and some- 
times his great-grandfather. For more recent times State Papers^ 
especially "Inquisitions," give useful information. 

Though for the purpose of this Record a very considerable stock of 
information is forthcoming from the above-mentioned sources, the present 
writer has to lament the loss of special authorities extant when Dr. Smith 
wrote his History of Cork. The principal of these was the "Saltair of 
Rosbrin," a genealogical poem on the O'Mahonys by a bard attached to 
Rosbrin Castle. As this was probably written in or soon after the time 
of FInin O'Mahon, chieftain of Rosbrin, a.d. 1496, described in the 
Annals of Loch Ce and of the Four Masters as one of the most learned 
men of his time. It would, doubtless, have given the substance of what 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 5 

his historical collection would have contained about the sept. This has 
been sought for in vain ; and in all probability it was taken over to the 
Continent, as were many other historical documents, when the leading- 
members of the ruined clans betook themselves to France and Spain 
after 1657. The other lost document, also sought for without success, 
is the "JBook of Timoleague," which would have given the names of 
the chiefs of Kinelmeky who were buried in that abbey {Annals Pour 
Masters, 1240). That it gave such obits is known from extracts con- 
tained in a document about the De Courceys, preserved in Ware's collec- 
tion in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. 

Of the accounts written in English on the present subject, either ex 
professo in special chapters or articles, or incidentally in treating of 
other tribes or of county topography, there is not one that is not dis- 
figured by many erroneous statements. Cronnelly's special account, 
though creditable to one who has made the attempt under great difficul- 
ties, is meagre and inaccurate. O'Hart gives a translation of the 
pedigrees in the Royal Irish Academyi MSS., but his accompanying obserr 
vations are inaccurate and uncritical. The Lambeth pedigree of the 
Western chiefs (Sir George Carew's) is altogether incorrect for the 
period between Mahon (ob. 1038) and Dermod Mor (circa 1320). So is 
the pedigree of the Heralds' College, inserted by Dr. Copinger in 
the new edition of Smith's History of Cork, and the "notes" accompanying 
it (also by the Heralds' College). In Bennett's History of Bandon there 
is, as will be shown, what seems a deliberate invention intended to 
belittle the sept that preceded the new occupiers of Kinelmeky. And two 
articles that appeared in previous volumes of this Journal contain state- 
ments about the sept that will be shown to rest on entirely insufficient 
grounds. Hence a narrative that might, under other circumstances, be 
continuous, must be frequently interrupted by refutation of errors that 
have been allovi^ed to hold their ground long enough. 

I.. — The Hereditary Surname. 

O 1Tl*.\t5^rhnxX, or as it was anglicised down to, and during, the EHza- 
bethan period, O 'Mahon, was derived from Mahon (tTlAtgxirhxMn, geni- 
tive case mAtSxirhr)^), the son of Cian and Sabia (S^-ot!)), daughter of 
Brian Boru. Cian and Brian's daughter were married in 979, the year 
after the battle fought at t)ex^tAc-tex^cCx^, near Macroom, in which Brian 
was victorious, and his opponent, IDx.votrhti^'t); the father of Cian, was 
defeated and killed. Mahon was thus of Eoghanacht and Dalcassian 
origin ; and the marriage of his parents was intended to promote and 
secure peace between the rival races, that Brian might be free to proceed 
with the ambitious design of obtaining the sovereignty! of Ireland. The 
marriage is alluded to in Dr. O'Brien's Annals of Innisfallen (a.d. 1014),. 
and by 510UA Cxiorh, a contemporary poet, in his description of Cian's 
residence, Rath-Raithleann, which shall be quoted later on. As Mahon's 
ancestors. Core and Fedlimidh, were Kings of Munster, and as his 
grandfather is also placed in the list of Munster Kings in the Book 
of Leinster (written 1166) the sept which bore his name was described 
as of royal origin by the ancient genealogists. This was known to the 
4nglo-Irish writers Sir Richard Cox and Smith. The former, after 



6 THE o'maiionys of kinei meky and ivagha, 

saNiiig thai the family or descendants of Mahon "are to be reckoned 
among- the best families in Ireland," adds,^ "for Kean Mac Moylemore 
(rccte" Maolmuadh) married Sarah, daughter of Brian Boru, and his son, 
Mahon, was ancestor of all the Mahonys. It is from this Kean that 
Inniskcan derives its name, and from the Mahonies Droghid-I-Mahoun, 
or Bandon Bridge." See also Smith's History of Cork, book i., ch. i., 
p. 13, new ed. A considerable period elapsed after the death of Mahon 
(1038, Anuals Four i\f asters) before his name became the hereditary sur- 
name of his descendants. 

It ought not to be necessary at the present day to discuss the opinion 
which at one time prevailed owing to the authority of Keating^ — that 
it was in Brian's time and by virtue of an ordinance of his that surnames 
were assumed in Ireland. The author of a recent book on Irish Antiqui- 
ties does not seem to be aware that Dr. O 'Donovan refuted this opinion 
in a series of articles in the Dublin Penny Journal in 1841. Indeed, 
elaborate refutation might have been spared, for it is obvious that if 
Brian issued such an ordinance it would have been observed by himself, 
his sons, and those connected with him; and thus he would be called 
MacKennedy or O'Lorcan, and his sons by the same surname; or if he 
selected his own name to be permanent, his sons' would be Mac Brian, 
but by no means O'Brian; and Mahon would be Mac Kean or O'Maol- 
muadh ; or if he imposed his own name or his sons', they and their 
descendants would be Mac Mahon. Ua, or O, grandson, would not 
be applied to a son. The opinion of Keating was an erroneous inference 
from the fact that the great majority of Irish surnames are derived from 
chiefs who were contemporaries of Brian. Or, to speak more precisely, 
the surnames are derived from the genitive case of the names of those 
chiefs, i.e., not from CA\<tAC., but from CA\^tA\^, not from V(\At^AvnA-\x\, 
but from ITlACSAttinA. But we have no evidence that, in the generation 
immediately after Brian, the O and Mac prefixed to a name had the effect 
of a permanent surname. 

Mr. MacCarthy Glas's assertion that "the son of Carthach in 1045 
assumed the surname borne by his descendants" is an illogical inference 
from the solitary passage in the Annals — "Muiredach, son of Carthach, 
died 1092." What evidence, then, would shew that a certain surname had 
been adopted at a particular date? If an Annalist, accurately transcribing 
a record contemporary with a certain chief, described, for instance, the 
great-grandson of Mahon as O'Mahouna, or the grandson of Carthach 
as MacCarthaigh, in such cases only would O and Mac be shown to be 
employed in a new sense extended beyond their ordinary meaning in a 
prose chronicle. If the entry in the Annals of Innis fallen (Dublin, copy) 
for the year 11 35 be an exact copy of an original written in that year, 
we should say that Cian (the second), great-grandson of Mahon, was the 
first designated by the surname: "Cian, son of Donogh Donn, son of 
Brodchon, O'Mahony, was killed at the battle of Cloneinagh."* But 
this question is not of much importance. 

From the O'Mahonys, descendants of Mahon, son of Cian and Sabia, 

2 See Cox's Regmcm Corcagiense. 

3 More accurate than Keating, but still partly mistaken, was the author of an old Irish MS. 
Life of Brian (a fragment T.C.D., H 2, 15) : " It was in his time that surnames were given." I i 
Cmcat> floinnre a|i r«f. i ' 

4 Near Mountrath. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 7 

daughter of Brian, are to be distinguished the O'Mahonys of Uladh' 
Ulidia (Co. Down), about whom there are several entries in the Annals 
in the twelfth century — the last in 1149 — after which they disappear from 
history. They are supposed to have become Mac Mahons, Maughons, 
and Matthews,^ which names are still found in that locality. Some of 
them must have gone over to Scotland in the frequent migrations that 
took place to that country in ancient times ; certainly Sir Walter Scott 
found the name in the Highlands, for a "Dugald Mahony" figures in 
his JVaverley. The identity of manyi surnames in the North with those 
in the South of Ireland has often led to erroneous conclusions. The 
O'Neills of the South, in the Dalcassian territory, were a different race 
from the great clan of Tyrone; and the Northern Mac Mahons, O'Connors, 
O'Callaghans, O'Murchoes (Murphys), are from ancestors totally different 
from those of their Southern namesakes. 

But after the descendants of Mahon commenced to bear his name 
as a surname, the Tribe-name continued to be what it had been for six 
centuries. In the wide Sept-land, extending, as we shall show, from 
"Carn Ui Neid (the Mizen Head) to Cork, "over which Mahon and his pre- 
decessors ruled, there were many thousand families connected with their 
head by the bond of a common descent from more or less remote 
ancestors. The descendants of these. tribesmen would not be entitled to 
take, or perhaps desire to take, the name of the ruling family, implying 
as it did a descent from one who was not their ancestor. The distinction 
between the chief's surname and the Tribal Name is distinctly brought out 
in the entry in the Annals of Innisf alien under the year 1171 : "'OoiicA 
O rriAtsArhnxX a\\ AO^Xi-eACA6," Donogh O'Mahony over the Ui-Eacac." 
Slowly and gradually, in the course of some centuries, each individual 
member of his tribe began to describe himself by the surname at first 
confined to the chief's family. It would be unreasonable to suppose that 
the numerous families of the tribe, distinct from Mahon 's, that lived in 
1035, had no descendants living in the seventeenth century. And, 
accordingly, it would seem then that the hereditary surname does not 
imply that each one who bears it descends from the son of Cian, which 
can be established only by proving descent from a chief or chief's relatives 
at the time of the disruption of the sept. The same observation applies, 
of course, to other Irish septs, and to the bearers of the name of the 
Anglo-Irish families. The Norman nobles had thousands of Irish kern 
as their retainers ; these gradually began to be called by the name of 
their feudal lord, and became the ancestors of numbers who now bear 
English names and think themselves of English descent. 

11. 

The Sept-name,® which, as has been already said, preceded by nearly 
six centuries the assumption of the Surname, was 

"Ui Qacac iriumAn, Clan Eochy of Munster. 
This was derived from an ancestor, QAtAiX), Eochy, who flourished about 
475 > ^ grandson of Core, and a cousin-german of Aengus, King of 

5 Cantbrensis Eversus, vol. i. p. 247. 

6 Mr. H. W. Gillman has called attention to the superior antiquity of the O'Mahonys as 
compared with the other Eoganacht cians descended from Core. — Cork Arch, /ournal, vol. iii., 
2nd series, p. 207. 



8 THE O'.MAIIONYS OF KINEl.MEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Cashel. The posterity of Eochy detached themselves from the main 
body of the Eoganachta, or descendants of Eoghan Mor, and formed a 
separate clan. They acquired the name of Eoganacht Ui Eacac, the 
first of the many subdenominations of the generic name that were given 
to clans of the correlatives according as they acquired a separate exisi- 
ence. The clan's rapid advance to power and influence is evidenced by 
the fact that the grandson of Eochy, and son of Criomthan, Cairbre Crom/ 
became King of Munster, and the fourth in descent, Fedlimidh, obtained 
the same coveted dignity. Evidence of the important position which 
the clan continued to maintain is afforded by a passage in the Wars of 
the Gael and the Goill, p. 19 (year 845) : "The men of the South of Erinn 
(not 'South Munster') gave battle to the Danes under Doncha, prince of 
the Ui Eachach. " The chieftainship was always held by one of the line 
of Mahon's ancestors. Dr. O'Donovan says: "Ui-Eachach, i.e., the 
descendants of Eochaid, son of Cas, son of Core, King of Munster. The 
Ui-Mathghamhna, or O'Mahonys, were the chief family of this race. 
They were seated in the barony of Kinelmeky, in the county of Cork, 
but they afterwards encroached on the Corca-Laighe, and became masters 
of the district called Fonn-Iartharach, i.e., western land.^ In process 
of time, the Tribe became divided into two branches — ^virtually distinct 
tribes — but for many centuries comprehended under the old sept-name, 
Ui Eacach or Clan Eochy. To Criompthan, son of Eochy, two sons were 
born, Aedh and Laegaire. Nurtured by the same foster-father, Lugaid, 
the youths grew up with such strangely different dispositions that by an 
expressive but most unpleasant metaphor, it was said that "Lugaid reared 
Aedh on blood and Laegaire on milk." The metaphor passed, after a 
time, into mythology, an illustration of Max Muller's "My>ths from 
disease of Language," and it was gravely recorded that Lugaid "the 
double-breasted" nursed one child with blood and the other with milk 
in the literal sense of the words. A genealogical fragment^ in the Library 
of Trinity College, Dublin — an excerpt in a miscellany of the Firbisses — 
recording the story by way of annotation on the Ui Eachach pedigree, 
concludes: "Each of the youths took after his nurture, and the Cinel 
Aedh were fierce in war and the Cinel Laegaire thrifty and careful." 
The Cinel Laegaire in after ages, when surnames were established, be- 
came known as O'Donoghue. From Aedh, who was in the line of 
Mahon's ancestors, and who from his overbearing character was called 
"Aedh Uargarbh," descended the elder branch, the 

7 Cairbre, son of Criomphthan (otherwise spelled Creamthain). The above assertion is, of 
course, disputable, as there were many Criomphthans in those early centuries. But it will be 
shown later on, that chronological reasons require that Criomphthan, father of Cairbre, should 
be the son of Eachaid, son of Cas. 

8 O'Donovan's Edition of the Book of Rights. See also his notes to poem from " Saltair na 
Rann," in Prof. Kelly's Cambriensis Eversus, vol. ii. p. 778. 

9 tujAi-o Cichech tio aIc -oa itiac CtiiomcAtnn mAic Cacac niAic CAif mAic Cuifc .1 
Ao-o octif lAojAitie F0)i A cicib. X)& teAmtiAcc -oo beiiex) -oo lAojCAitie) aj- a etc, ocuf bA 
Kuil -oo bejte-o ■oo Aox>, contiogAb cac Af r'", ^f "em SAifsit) pon CniAt nxXo-OA oc«r ro""r 
yoY cinel lAosAtiie. For this extract the writer is indebted to Mr. John MacNeill, B.A., the 
distinguished Irish scholar and historical critic. 



THE OMAIIONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 9 

CiNEL yVEDH 

(whence Kinalea), or the race of Aedh, the first distinctive name of the 
sept long- afterwards known as O'Mahony. This name was preserved 
in the language of genealogists when for public use it was superseded 
l:)y the name derived from Mahon, son of Cian. A genealogical register^" • 
of the family in the R. I. Academy, transcribed from a very ancient one — of 
which the archaic quatrain it embodies is evidence — commences with 
the heading- — Cinel ^ot)xX ^nn fo fiof, "here follows the race of Aedh,'' 
i.e., the 0'Mahon}s. 

That the Cinel Aedh was the elder branch is shown by the collocation 
of the names, Aedh first, then Laegaire 

(i) In the genealogical fragment just quoted; 

(2) In the Irish Life of St. Senanus, a very ancient biography pub- 

lished in Stokes' Anecdota Oxoniensia; 

(3) In the poem of St. Colman quoted in the foregoing "Life" ;^^ 

(4) In the line of Aedh continued the chieftainship and the title of 

Ri Rathleann. The son of Aedh bears that designation in 
the ancient Life of St. Finbar, of which more later on. 

The head of the other branch was designated, down to the time when 
surnames were assumed, as "Chief, or Prince, of the Cinel Laegaire." 
The subsequent history of this warlike sept (O'Donoghue) by no means 
bears out the forecast formed from the disposition attributed to its ancestor. 
It is nothing short of marvellous that during the course of many 
centuries, when fierce contentions raged everywhere around them, the 
two branches of the Ui Eachach Mumhan should have preserved unbroken 
the unity of their tribe until the fatal day after the battle of Clontarf, 
when they "met in one camp" for the last time (Wars of the Gael and 
the Goill, Dr. Todd's edition, p. 215). 

in. — The Territory of the Tribe. 

The "Cradle of the Race" was Rath Rathleann, with its numerous 
surrounding raths, that constituted an ancient tribal town, situate in the 
present Barony of Kinelmeky, near its northern and eastern boundaries. 

This rath was the seat of Core, who bestowed it, when he selected 
Cashel as the royal residence, on his second son, Cas, the father of the 
eponymous ancestor of the Ui Eachach, with the title of Ri Raithleann 
and perpetual exemption from tribute, as laid down in the Bo'ok of Rights : 

"The Clan of Cas is not liable 
To the tribute of Cashel of the companies : 
It is not due from Glen Amhain, 
Nor from red Raithleann. " ^^ 

10 MS. 23 G. 22 R.I. A. 

11 In the ancient Latin Lives of St. Senanus, the order of the names is "Aidus and Leogarius." 
— See Colgan, Acta Sanciorttm, March 8th. As St. Colman, son of Leinin, according to the 
Four Masters, died in A.D. 6co, his testimony is that of a contemporary. Mr. O'Hart makes 
Laegaire the elder, but "more suo " quotes no authority. 

12 Glen Amhain, when these lines were written, must have been in the possession of a clan of 
the race of Cas. It afterwards belonged to the O'Kceffes, and finally became Roche's country. 



lO THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

The extent of territory which was left with the Fort to Cas must 
have been considerable, as the designation of Ri, though rather prodigally 
bestowed in ancient Ireland, was never given to the chiefs of a small 
district. The original territory was increased by subsequent acquisitions 
until the Sept-land in the ninth century included the following : — 

Kinelea and Kinelmeky. — The Tribe name, Cinel Aodha (above ex- 
plained) became a territorial name designating the entire of the district 
afterwards called by the names of Kinelea and Kinelmeky. The name 
Cincl-mBeice, "the race of Bece,"^^ fourth in descent from Aedh, did 
not become a territorial one until a later period. When Kinelea Citra 
(the modern barony of Kinelea)) and Kinelea Ultra (identified with Kinel- 
meky) v>ere appointed Deaneries of the Diocese of Cork, those very 
names presupposed Kinelea as the general name of the district thus 
divided for ecclesiastical purposes. The old Rolls of the diocese of Cork^* 
showed that "the Barony of Kinelmeky was included in (recte was identical 
with) the Deanery of Kinelea Ultra." As the race of Aedh unquestion- 
ably lived in "Kinelea Ultra," it was the same race that gave its name 
to Kinelea Citra before those ecclesiastical appellations came into use. 
The place name, Kilmah'onoge, Coill tTlAtSArhti^ 615, "the wood of 
young Mahon," in the present Barony of Kinalea, is a survival from the 
eleventh century. ^^ 

Carbery. — In his Regnum Corcagiense, Sir Richard Cox, who con- 
sulted and often refers to Irish antiquaries, writes: "This noble country 
formerly belonged to the O'Mahonys and the O'DriscoIls. One branch was 
called O'Mahown Carbery, and his seat was Castle Mahon, which was 
then part of Carbery." This is not quite exact, as that castle was in 
Kinelmeky, which, as has been shown, was a more recent name of a 
division of Kinelea. The name Carbery, according to Irish usage, did 
not comprise Corca Laidhe, the patrimony of the O'DriscoIls since the 
dawn of history, nor Ivagha, when that district was detached from Corca 
Laidhe. In the poem of Mac Brody on the Eoghanacht Clans, and in 
those of other bards, Carbery is expressly distinguished from the two 
other place-names. As to the origin of the name, all Irish antiquaries 
concurred in deriving it from Cairbre (Riada), a contemporary of Olioll 
Olum, in the last quarter of the second century. In the nineteenth 
century the novel opinion was started, without any pretence of support 

[Carbery must have been occupied by the tribe of the Ui-Eachach Mumhan before their 
occupation of Ivagha, which they could invade only through Carbery; this they would not 
venture to do, or be allowed to do, if the inhabitants of Carbery were not first subdued.'"] 

'3 Smith's derivation of Kinelmeky {Ken, "a head," neal, "noble," and mecan, a "root)," 
copied by Bennett (His/. Bandon), is obviously an impossible one. Kinel, a race, followed by the 
name of an ancestor, forms many tribe names in every part of Ireland. He had evidently not 
seen the name written in Irish. 

14 Bishop Lyon, who had access to the archives, in 1588 wrote on this subject — " My Rolls 
prove the Barony of Kinelmeky to be in the Deanery of Kinelea ultra.. — Calendar of State 
Papers, A.D. 1588. 

15 Dr. O'Donovan, in his edition of O'Heerin, not knowing that Cinel Aodha was the 
tribe-name of the O'Mahonys, explained the place-name Kinelea as derived from Aedh Dubh,~ 
ancestor of the McCarthys, O'Sullivans, and O'Callaghans, and hence accepted the apparer 
meaning of O'Heerin's quatrain, that the latter sept was in Kinelea, But as Dr. 0'Donov£ 
declared the latter half of this quatrain — making the same sept live in Bearra — to be "a mistake 
this self-contradictory passage of O'Heerin is no authority for any statement. Perha 
O'Heerin intended to speak of O'Sullivan "of the Cinel Aedh (Dubb)," who lived in Beai 
and that by a lapsus calatni he substituted the name of the other tribe. 



THE o'mAHONYS of KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I I 

from historical testimony, liiat tlie name was imported by the Hy Cairbre 
Aedha, or O'Donovans, when migrating- from Hy Fidgiente, Co, Limerick, 
to their new tribe land in West Cork, after the English invasion. The 
editor of Annals of the Four Masters, lapsing in this instance from that 
habit of keen criticism which is so conspicuous in his works, gave some 
countenance to this new opinion, but with evident misgivings. "The 
extension of the name," he says (beyond the tribal territory) "looks 
strange enough, as it took place since the year 1200, and as the race 
that transferred it did not remain (recte never was) the dominant family 
in the district. "^'^ It is not only improbable but impossible that any 
tribe occupying a small corner of a large territory could by habitually 
using a name of their choice get the name adopted in the larger terri- 
tories of their long-established neighbours, and that they could succeed 
in doing so in about twenty years. For the name, Cairbreach, an adjec- 
tive derived from Cairbre, was borne by O'Mahon in a.d. 1220, according 
to the historical proofs furnished to the French Heralds (see p. 184 ante) 
and as may be inferred from the entry in the Annals of the Four Masters, 
A.D. 1240, about the tomb of O'M. Cairbreach in Timoleague Abbey. 
And according to the Bodleian Annals of Innisfallen, Donal Got McCarthy, 
assumed that name in a.d. 1232. Though the place-name Carbery does 
not occur in the Annals before the above dates, the present writer has 
found it in the B'ook of Leinster, in the portion which contains a copy 
of part of the War of the Gael and the G'oill, chap xxviii. : "There came 
a great fleet of the foreigners with Ragnall and Ottir, the Earl . 
and they divided and ravaged Carbery and Muskerry between them, and 
one-third of them went to Corcach (Cork)." The Book of Leinster was 
written about a.d. 1166, and this portion was, of course, transcribed from 
a more ancient copy of an original commonly held to have been written 
by a contemporary of Brian Boru. See Dr. Todd's Introduction to Wars 
vf the Gael, page xii. The name Carbery may have originated from 
Cairbre (son of Creamthan), who was King of Munster, according to 
the Four Masters, In a.d. 571. 

Ivagha, or the Fonn lartharach, "Western Land." — "Long before 
the English Invasion," says Dr. O'Donovan, "the Ui Eachach Mumhan, 
or O'Mahonys, had from the Corca Laidhe that portion of their territory 
called Fonn lartharach,' i.e.. West Land, otherwise Ivagha, comprising 
the parishes of Kilmoe, Scoole, Kilcrohane, Durrls, Kilmaconoge, and 
Caharagh. " It would have been foreign to his subject to quote the 
authorities which justified that statement. The following passages, 
brought forward for the first time by the present writer, prove conclusively 
that Ivagha was in the possession of the sept of the UI Eachach In the 
ninth century. 

(i) In a poem of Mac Llag, Brian Boru's bard. Clan is described as 
"Clan an Cairn," I.e., of Carn IJi Neid, the MIzen Head. Giolla Caomh, 
a bard of the eleventh century, who flourished about 1050, refers to 
Clan as the "chief king of the hosts of Carn Ui Neid." 

(2) In the "Saltair na Rann,"^^ there is a poem on the Patron Saints 

16 Appendix to last vol. of the Four Masters. 

17 The poem from which the above is an extract is not found in the MS. of the Saltair na 
Rami, which Stokes edited, but was in the copy used by Keating and Colgan. See the former 
on the reign of Aedh Mac Ainmire, and the latter, Acta Sanctorum, p. 646. They both ex- 
pressly attri^ute this poem to Angus Cele De, who is known to have lived in the first half of the 



12 TllIC o'mAIIONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

of the different tribes, which may be found at the end of vol. ii. of Pro- 
fessor Kelly's edition of Camhrensis Eversus. In it we read: "The 
Ui Eachach, ffom Cam Ui Neid to Cork, are under the protection of 
Barra (St. Finbar)." On this passage Dr. O'Donovan supplied the fol- 
lowing note: "Carn Ui Neid, the Mizzen Head." 

(3) In the Vision of Mac CongUnne the hero of that ancient tale is 
represented as going from Cork in quest of Cahal Mac Finguine, King 
of Munster, "to the West, to the residence of Pican, King of the Ui 
Eachach at Dun Coba,^^ at the boundary between the Ui Eachach and 
the Corca Laidhe. He offered to cure the King of Munster of a malady 
from which he suffered, and the prince of the Ui Eachach promises him a 
reward of 'a sheep from every fold from Carn to Cork.' " 

Some observations must now be made on the age of the Vision of 
Mac CongUnne. The Annals of the Four Masters record the death of Cathal, 
son of Finguinne, King of Munster, in the year a.d. 737, "There is 
little doubt" (wrote the translator, Dr. O'Donovan), "from the obsolete 
language and style of this tract, the Vision of Mac CongUnne, that it was 
written in or shortly after Cathal's time. It contains some curious details 
of social habits and of historical and topographical facts, &c. 

According to this judgment on the antiquity of the "Vision" by one 
whose authority stands even higher on questions of language than on 
questions of historical criticism, it is clear that a.d. 800 would be too 
recent a date to assign for the seizure of the western territory by the 
clan of thei Ui Eachach. Later criticism is far jfrom invalidating 
O'Donovan's decision. Professor Kuno Meyer, in his edition of 1892, 
discusses the question whether the language gives an indication of the 
date of this curious work. He answers : "In the absence of any pub- 
lished investigation on the characteristics of the Irish language at 
different periods, I cannot speak with certainty." But, nevertheless, 
following the traditions of German criticism, he tries to find an original 
and a superinduced part, and says : "In some form or other, the tale 
is proved to be older than the Leabhar Breac version of it," whose date 
he fixes "at the end of the twelfth century." There are, he thinks, 
"some forms in the language that belong to the twelfth century,"^' 

ninth century. There is intrinsic evidence that it dates from a time when the Eoganacht tribes 
(with tha exception of the Ui Eachacti had not begun to occupy any part of the present Co. Cork, 
The poem says, "The Munstermen of Eoghan's race, to their borders, are under Ailbe's protec- 
tion," i.e., in the territory comprised in the dioceses of Emly and Cashel, parts of Limerick 
and Tipperary. 

18 Rath Raithlean was his principal residence, but every Ri was assumed by the Brehon 
law to have three Duns.— ^^^ Dr. Sullivan's Introduction to O'Curry's Manners and Customs of 
Ancient Irish. 

19 The passage about the "King of the Ui Eachach," will serve as a specimen of the obsolete 
form of the Irish language in which the book was written : — 

" Itnctns FotjechreA -oo f^isiT) CAchAt ! " " Now go at once to Cathal !" "Where is 

"CiA hAitinim 1 irit CAchAt?" A|i niAc Cathal ?" asked Mac Conglinne. " Not hard 

Coti^linne. "Hi liAtinfA," ot iriAnchin. "1 to tell," answered Manchin. "In the house 

rAij pichAin meic nioile ptroe t'lS ^«a of Pichan, son of Mael Find, King of Ivagha, 

ti-echAcVi 10 'Oun ChobA 1 cociitcti nuA n at Dun Coba in the borders of Ivagha and 

echAch ocuf CoticA tAij-oe; ocuf fochfi Corcalee, and thou must journey thither to- 

innochc connice innfin." night." 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINF.LMEKY AND IVAGHA. I 3 

as If there were any ancient works whose grammatical forms transcribers 
did not modernize here and there. Not satisfied with this kind of argu- 
ment, he proceeds to confirm it by an argument which Is still weaker. 
The vagrant hero of the tale sarcastically offers the monks of Cork tithes 
on his bit of bread and bacon, and therefore "the work was written after 
1152, when Cardinal Paparo, in the Synod of Kells, got the tithes 
enforced." But were not tithes in use in Ireland before? Yes, he 
admits, "they were mentioned earlier." This is understating the fact; 
tithes were not only mentioned but prescribed in the Brehon Law (see 
Brehon Laws, ill., 33, 39, 25), and we may presume that that regulation 
was not allowed to be forgotten. Gillebert, Bishop of Limerick, speaks 
of them as ordinarily paid in a.d. 1090. So the author of the tale could be 
perfectly familiar with the exaction of tithes long before the twelfth 
century, and whenever he lived, he must have believed that the Clan 
Eochy occupied their western land in the time of Cathal, a.d. 735. 

In full harmony with the above testimonies is the statement in the 
Wars of the Gael and the Goill, page 137 (Dr. Todd's edition) that "Brian 
sent forth a naval expedition upon the sea, namely, the Gaill of Ath 
Cliath and Port Ldirge (Dublin and Waterford), and the Ui Eachach 
Mumhan, and of such men of Erin as were fit to go to sea." This 
plainly implies a large sea coast in their territory. How considerable 
their contingent was may be inferred from the following passage in the 
same page of the work quoted : "And Brian distributed the tribute 
according to rights ... he gave a third of the tribute to the warriors 
of Leinster and of the Ui Eachach Mumhan." The fleet must have 
largely consisted of the forces which his son-in-law, Clan, sent fronJi the 
region of "Carn Ui Neid." 

With the conclusion arrived at as to the date of the occupation of 
Ivagha, from the historical testimonies above quoted, the reader may 
now compare two conclusions that have been arrived at by two other 
writers, apparently by an easier process : 

(i) The author of the "Barony of Carbery," in a former number of 
the Corh Historical and Archceological Journal, vol. x. , 1904 writes: 
"The O'Mahonys had begun to make conquests in the west before the 
English Invasion." And again: "The English drove the O'Mahonys to 
the west." The same writer's opinion about the origin of the name 
Carbery has been already refuted. 

(2) The author of the "Pedigree of the O'Mahonys," with notes 
appended, from the Heralds' College, published in the new edition 
of Smith's History of Cork, informs us that " Carew (i.e., the 
Marquis Carew) did make O'Mahon Lord of Ivagha." Dermod Mor, 
the O'Mahon referred to, was the ninth in descent from an ancestor who 
was called chief of that region long before the name of Carew appeared 
In any written document. There is no other authority than this writer 
for the assertion that "the O'Mahonys (and O'Driscolls) paid rent to the 
Norman Invader," an assertion repeated in the "Notes on Carbery." 
The time at last came when they had to pay rent to the invaders, but It 
did not come for some centuries. It is not credible that the Englishman 
in Dublin, who In 1600 wrote this pedigree and notes, ever heard any 
"O'Mahons admit that they held their lands from Carew," or that he (the 
writer) ever was in communication with any member of the sept about 



14 THE o'mAKONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

their genealogy, otherwise he would not have represented them as de- 
scended from "Keynek of Kelether in Munster." 

The eastern boundary of the Sept Land. — This was Cork, as appears 
from some of the testimonies above given and from an ancient Litany^" 
containing an invocation of the saints of Lough Irke, "in finibus Mus- 
cragiae et nepotum Eochadii Cruadh," i.e., at the boundaries of the 
Muscraighe (tribes) and of the descendants of Eochy — the Ui Eachach 
This preserves an epithet of Eochy not given elsewhere, Cruadh, the 
hard, the severe. Lough Irke, or Eirce, meant^^ the expansion of the 
Lee at Cork before the course of the river was confined within banks in after 
centuries. The eastern and western boundaries of the tribe land coincided 
with the eastern and western limits of the Diocese of Cork — "ab ipsa 
Corcagia usque ad Carninedam" — as defined in the decrees of the Synod 
of Rathbreasail,^^ a.d. mo. In the ancient Life of St. Senanus Innis- 
carra is described as belonging to the "King of Raithleann," whose 
Muskerry possessions, afterwards divided among minor septs of the clan, 
may be seen in one of the maps of the Pacata Hibernia under the names 
of "Ifflonlua (recte Ui Flonn Lua), Clan Conogher, and Clan Fynin" 
(Fineen). Smith takes Ui Flonn Lua in a wider meaning to include 
the parishes of Kilmurry, Moviddy, Canovee, and Aglish, and states that 
all these districts had been conquered at a remote day by Flan, an 
ancestor [predecessor] of Bece. The present writer has been unable to 
find any record of this Flann, except the lines quoted by Smith^^ from 
an Irish MS., possibly the Psalter of Rossbrin, that genealogical poem 
that has been sought for in vain. The quaint old quatrain gives an 
account of the boundaries of the district which Flann acquired by con- 
quest, and declares that "he paid no tribute but to the Church." One 

20 In the Acta Martyrum, Liturgica, etc., per H. Vardeum (Ward), Louvain, A D, 1662, 
p. 204, Ward maintains that this Litania was of the 9th century, or at latest the lOth. 

21 So Sir James Ware. Dr. Caulfield was mistaken in identifying it with the lake at 
Gougane Barra. 

22 See Dr. Lynch's version of Keating's account of this Synod, Camhrensis Eversns, vol, 
ii. app. 

23 The lines were in the Dan Direach metre, but must have been incorrectly transcribed by 
Smith, as the first two do not rhyme, and there is some omission in the third : — 

O 5tAif e c|iit:he ^ruAifi -ptAti 
riA ciochA chuAig A'oueo|iinn 

triAjt A|1 f1lA15 CUATl ACh-pOf 

5An chiof tiAchA Ach "oeAslAif . 

These simple lines were translated by Smith with all the pomp of eighteenth century 
poetical diction : — 

West from the stream of Gaisecrithe brook, 

To Muskery's paps, where holy Patrick struck 

His crozier ; thence unto the southern main 

The conquering Flan o'er all this tract did reign. 

No rent, no tribute, for this land he paid, 

But to the Church alone, his offering made. 
The Four Masters, a.d. 747, have the entry: "Flann, son of Ceallach, lord of Muskerry 
died." He must have been a grandson or great-grandson of the Flann who is the subject of the 
foregoing verse , 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I 5 

of the boundaries given in the verses was Glaise Crithe, a stream not 
identified. 

From the description of the Sept Land it will be seen that it was of 
great extent. Indeed it would appear that "Eoganacht Raithleann," or 
Eoghanacht Ui Eachach," as it was also called, exceeded in extent 
Eoganacht Cashel or any other Eoghanacht, i.e., tribe-land of any clan 
descended from Eoghan Mor. 



IV- — Rath Raithlean, 

the "cradle of the race," was also the headquarters of the full-grown 
sept. The name is a genitive, from a nominative Raithliu, in old Irish ; sn 
Whitley Stokes acutely conjectured from analogy, and tradition has con- 
firmed his opinion, as there is evidence that one aged ' ' Shanachie, ' ' who died 
some thirty years ago, used the name Rathliu as a nominative. 
Nevertheless, there are some instances of the use of Raithleann 
as a nominative; in the transitions, from one period of the language 
to another, genitives have occasionally started as nom.inatives — set up 
for themselves in fact — just as the Latin ablatives did when Latin 
was passing into Italian. A legendary account has been given of the 
application of the name to the fort. It was the name of King Core's 
nurse, and, as he was leaving for Cashel, she requested, and her request 
was granted, that the Fort should bear her name. This reminds one of 
Virgil's "Aeneia nutrix," who gave her name to Caieta (Gaeta). This 
residence was associated in the verses of the bards with two names 
especially, the name of Core, its traditional builder, and the name of his 
descendant, Cian. 

"TIac tlxMtteAn, "Rxxt CtiifC 'f C6in,'! 

a line of Giolla Caomh in the eleventh century is found as a quotation 
in subsequent bards, and in a poem by one of the last of the old 
tribal bards, Donal McCarthy (na thuile), in 1719. The Chief who 
resided in it, being head of the whole sept, always received the denomina- 
tion of Ri Rathleann, "Rex Rathlendiae" and "Rathluyniae" in the 
Latin Lives of the ancient Irish Saints. He is several times referred to 
in the Book of Rights (Leabhar na g-ceart, edited by O'Donovan), in 
which are set forth the usages that regulated the relations of provincial kings 
towards the chiefs of their provinces down to the Norman period. One 
passage has already been quoted, page 189. In another he is called the 
King of "great Ui Eachach," and in the following passage his privilege of 
exemption from tribute is affirmed : 

"There are three Kings of great Munster 
Whose tribute to Cashel is not due — 
The King of Gowran, whose hostages can't be seized, 
The Kings of Raithlean and of Lough Lein. " 

A few years ago it would have been impossible to give a historical de- 
scription of this Rath and its surroundings. But in September, 1896, 
the Editor of the Gaelic Journal published from a MS. in the possession 
of Count Plunkett (there is another in the R. I. Academy) four poems of 



1 6 THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

the eleventh century, in two of which a minute and detailed description 
is given of this residence of Cian. Mr. MacNeill, in the explanatory 
notes he subjoined to the text of the poems, says: "O'Donovan does not 
identify the site of Raithleann, but there are surely remains sufficient 
to indicate its place. It must have been once of great importance. In 
Giolla Caomh's poem are enumerated among its features — the Road of 
the Chariots on the north, the Fort of Sadhbh (Sabia, daughter of Brian) 
on the west, the Ford of Spoils on the east, the Road of the Mules 
"below." Mac Liag further mentions the "cashels of the raths," the 
Rath of the Poets, the Rath of the Women, Raith Chuain (i.e., of Cuan 
O'Lochain, the ollamh), Dun Draighnean (i.e., of Draighnean O seicinn, 
the trumpeter), Raith Chuilcinn (I.e., of Cuilceann, the harper), the Rath 
of the Doirseoir (janitor or gatekeeper, Dubhthach) : in all seven forts, 
in addition to the fort of Raithleann itself, also called Raith Chuirc and 
Raith Chein. " 

On reading the descriptive poem in the Gaelic Journal, Canon Lyons, 
P.P., a distinguished Irish scholar, whose valuable contributions on the 
place-names of over forty parishes, and on Irish "Agnomina," are 
known to the readers of the Cork Historical and Archceological Journal, 
wrote for the next number of that Journal an article on the subject, in 
which he says : 

"A long-standing problem of local history has been clearly solved. 
The description given of Raithleann, the seat of Cian, son of Maolmuadh, 
son-in-law of Brian Boru, in the September number of the Gaelic Journal, 
has enabled me to identify it without the least doubt. The Rath exists, 
in a good state of preservation, with a double [triple] rampart, in the 
north-eastern point of the townland of Gurranes, in the parish of Temple- 
martin, and Barony of Kinelmeky, about six or seven miles north of 
Bandon, and three miles south-east of Crookstown station." 

Three years previously he had described the place w^ithout being able 
to identify it, in vol. ii., 1903, p. 146: "In the northern part of Temple- 
martin may be seen the plan of an ancient tribal city. The chief's 
stronghold is in the centre, surrounded by a triple rampart. At present 
about a dozen raths lie about it, there were more formerly, but they 
have been levelled. I discovered an ogham-inscribed stone in one of 
the smallest of these lisses, with twenty-seven letters engraved on it. 
This Rath must have been the chief stronghold of the O'Mahony chiefs of 
Kinelmeky, before they removed to Bandon and built Castle Mahon. 
A large number of raths still remain at a little distance, to the south and 
east; these must have been the residences of the guards and military 
followers of the chief." The Rath stands on an eminence commanding 
a view of the valley of the Bride. As to its dimensions, a writer in 
Lewis's Topographical Dictionary describes it as "including three acres, 
and surrounded by a triple rampart" ;24 its area does not seem quite so 
large; its diameter is about two hundred and fifty, feet. In the inner 
rampart some sepulchral mounds were opened, and found to contain 
cinerary urns — an evidence of its great antiquity. "We have records," 
says Canon Lyons in the article referred to, "carrying its history back 
to the dawn of Christianity, and it may have existed before." 

»4 Mr. Brash, who had visited the fort without identifying it, describes it, in his work on 
Oghams, as •' an immense Rath with numerous subterranean passages." 



THE o'mahonys ok kinelmeky and ivagha. 



17 




» A i^xjir^' r \\.^i. L B B 



,- '^p SrATMCUUEEN Ho 











(^Reduced from the six inch Ordnance Map, No. 184.) 

(i) Rnth Raithlean, called Caherkean at time of Ordnance Survey. Lisnacaheragh put down by the 
Ordnance Survey through mistake. "Caherkean," site of smaller fort lower down. 

(2) Dun Saidhbe or Rath Saidhbe in the old poems. Called " Lisnamanroe " (a corruption of Lis- 
nabanree), in Ordnance Map. 

(3) Rath of Culleen, the harper (destroyed). In townland of Rathculleen. 

(4) Rath of Maolan. (Rathphelane, Rathvolane, in Parish Register) [destroyed]. 

(5)1 (6), (7), (8) Rathsof " the Ollave," " the Poets," " the Women," " the Doorkeeper " (these destroyed). 
Dun Draighnean, too distant to appear in this map. 

[The identification of the rath is made out principally from Mac Liage's description, which is more detailed 
than that of Gilla Caomh.] 

The process by which it was identified is most complete, and can 
be followed by anyone possessing a six-inch ordnance map of the locality. 
It consists in comparing the description above summarized from the 
ancient poems of the eleventh century with the place-names given in the 
ordnance map. The poems are given in the Appendix to this Part I. 

The Bard Mac Liag^^ represents himself, in one of his poems, as taking 
his stand above the principal fort, which he apostrophises as the Rath of Core 
and Cian, and then, looking towards the north, observes " Dundraighnean, 
this fort to the north" (tDun-Dt^Aijne-Ain .An -oun f o uuaix)), and describes 
it as belonging to Clan's trumpeter. Now, on the north, or to be strictly 
accurate, north-west, is Castlemore, which stands on the site of a dun 
called Dundraighnean. The name was preserved by Dundrinan Church, 
which was adjacent to the castle on the east. An account of it is given 
in Brady's Parochial Records. De Cogan's representative in the sixteenth 
century made over to the Earl of Desmond "Castlemore, otherwise 
Downdrinane. " See Cox's Regnum Corcagiense. 

He next observes "the Rath of Culleen, the harper of the hill." On 
the map the next townland is marked Rathculleen. 



25 These topographical poems have done for Raithleann, what the old MS. accounts, in the 
Book of Leinster, by Kenneth O'Hartigan in the tenth century, and Cuan O'Lochan in the 
eleventh, enabled O'Donovan and Petrie to do for the Raths of Tara. 



1 8 THE o'maiionys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

In the same stanza with Culleen is named Maolan, another of Cian's 
attendants. On the map the townland on the south-west bears the 
name of Rathphelane, so spelled, but pronounced by Irish speakers Rath- 
vaylane (Rac t1l^\oU\in). 

On the west the poet sees the "Dun of Sadbh (Sabia), the daughter 
is she of Brian." The map shows, about two hundred yards to the west, 
a fort (not long since destroyed) named "Lisnamanroe," a sufficiently 
obvious corruption of Lisbanree (queen's fort). A townland about five 
miles distant, also in Kinelmeky, bears the name Lisbanree. 

On the east he notices the Rath of Cuan, the ollamh, but that and 
two others, also on the east ("the Rath of the Poets, the Rath of the 
Women"), which once stood inside the grounds of Gurrane House, were 
levelled within living- memory. Ac nA -£-c\\eAC, the "Ford of Spoils," 
must have been an expansion of the small stream at the foot of the hill, 
now flowing under the road. 

By the identification of Raithleann is determined the birthplace of St. 
Finbar. The ancient "Lives," both Irish and Latin, agree in stating 
that he was born when his father^*^ was "chief metal worker" or armourer 
to Tighernach (pron. Teernagh), prince of Raithleann (about a.d. 570). 
There is now no excuse for stating that he was born "near Bandon" at 
some imaginary fort on which Castlemahon was supposed to have been 
afterwards built, nor was there, forty years ago, any tradition to this 
effect, as has been sometimes asserted. 

26 In the Irish Ltf£ referred to, Amergin, the father of Finbar is described as pribhgoba 
not goba, smith), a distinction which disappears in the translation of the Latin Life. The 
pribhgoba, also called ollave goba, was a master craftsman, who designed and executed works 
of an ornamental kind such as are found in our museums. The Brehon I.aw assigned to 
this class of artificers as good a social position, in some respects, as belonged to the "aire desa," 
or lower class of nobles, and such is the status they hold in the ancient historical tales. Their 
names were preserved in the literature ; though the military spirit predominated among in the 
ancient Irish, they are not liable to the reproach of Friedrich Rueckert that — 

" In the troublous days of old, 
The soldier alone won fame and gold — 
The artist passed for a drone !" 

[To the place names called after Core, should be added "Cluainte Cuirc " (Core's meadows), 
near Dunmanway. 

Page 14. — A Latin "Litania" of the 9th or loth century is quoted from Ward's Acta 
Mariyriim, as incidentally determining the eastern boundary of the Ui Eachach. The Irish 
original may be seen in the Felire of Aengus, in the Leabhar Brcac, p. 23, and in the Book of 
Leinster, p. 373, Atkinson's edition. Whitley Stokes, in vol. i. of Thesaurus Palceohibernicus 
(Cambridge, 1901), retracted his opinion as to the date of the Felire, and accepted as accurate 
the traditional date, "about the year 800."] 



THE OMAHONVS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 



19 



APPENDIX. 



Extracts from the Two Topographical Poems. 



(From 510UA Cxiomli.) 



R<Mc tlAiclcAnn An \\A\t feo toi|t 
1 mbiox) iDAc mic t)fioir) riA j^tuAJ; 

X)A hionroA ^tioj^AX) xiom' \\e\p 
1 ti-Aimpji Cein triic mAoliiitiAi-o. 

t)ocA|i T1A 5CA|ibAt) An borAji fo ttiAi-o 
'5a •Dci5-Dif ftuAij Clomne CAif 

Urn CiAn niAC niAotmuAi-6 mic t)|ioin 
^^A\\ pill ^nArii r^ioij ca^i Aif. 

"Di'in SAit)be An -oun fo tiA|i 
In^eAn fin -oo bfiiAn tTlAc UaiI 

Cfii ceuT) beAn -oo -oiotAT) bAtji-D 
"Do ti^eAT) 5AC Ia le SAi-ob. 



Ai r\A jCjieAc An c-Ar fo coi^i 
At inA n-oeunrAOi jniorriA A15 

C|ii ceuT) eAc ^le j;cu|ir;AOi f|tiAn 
"Oo tijeA-o le CiAn -oo'n |iaiu. 

\)oiA\[ nA ITluillce An bocAji ci'of 
Cug rS'f ^f ■'^t^ mA^\\ "oe tVinAib 

CeAcjiACA mAc bA mAic jnAOi 
'Do cigeAt) 5AC Iaoi -oo'n -pAit. 

1f mife 510IIA CAorii coiji 

Uaca-o •oo'n jioim -o'a ■oceit) cac 

"Oo coinib|iif mo cttoi-oe im' cliAb 
gAn CiAn x)0 belt ifAn -pAit. 



(From triAC hA^.) 



Uaic UAirteAnn jiAit Cui|ic 1f Cein, 
CtiuAj, A "Oe, mA-p ACA Anocc ! 



*Otin 'OttAigneAin at) •otin fo ctiAi-o, 
til Seicinn nA|i chuait) le ■OAim ; 

■pofOA-o A fcuic mui|tni5 moi|i 
"Do cluinioif nA floi^ f An jiAic. 

Uaic Cuilcinn, cjiuin^e An cnuic, 
CfiuAJ mA^i "OO t■a^^c za\\ eif caic ; 

triAolAn If ITleAf AjAn mo^i, 
"Oa oinmiT) nA floj |iem' cttA"o j 

t>A mime lAT) f Aifi^ie CiAn, 
1f bA mime t)fiAn fAn^Aic. 

Uaic An "Ooif f eo^iA "oo cim ; 

If cf tiAJ mAf bim A^tif cAim ! 
til C15 'OubcAc guf AT) C15, 

'S m cijim-f e f of •oo'n uaic. 

tnAjicAin x)o cloinn ©acac caoiiti, 
"Oo'n -o^ioinj bA m6|t Aoib if A15! 

t)A biom-oA cf eAc Ajvif 51AII 
"Do beitiioif 50 CiAn 'f An ^lAit. 

tDife rriAC tiA5 nA jc^eAc ; 

If mAit An bf eAc mo beit mA^i cAim ; 
Til fiAbAf CAicleAc le neAc fiAtii 

An f At) "oo biox» CiAn 'f^^i f aic. 

For some remarks on the partial modernization of ancient poems frequently transcribed or 
recited through many centuries, see a subsequent page. 



Cf i tiAinmneACA Uaca C«if e 
"Oo lomAf •oAdb, 5ibe f ac ; 

"D'a eif fin, 'fe fuj mo fnuAX) 

gAn CiAn mAc tTlAolmtiAiT) fAn f aic. 

Uaic SAix)be, inline ttfiiAin, 
•OiAi-D Af n-oiAiT), If Uaic Cein, 

O "DO tuiC f 1A-0 ICAC Af leit, 

CfUAJ mo beACA beit -o'a noeif ! 

UAit nA bpleA-6, UAit nA mt)An, 
"Da jiAit x)o CA^ mAc ITlAolmtiAiT), 

5An Acc A "ocAif e "o'a nt)eif. 
If e -DO bei-p me jAn fntjAX). 

tlAit CuAin An |iAit feo coif, 
O ollAtii mic t)f oin 50 mbuAit), 

O locAm, bA mAit An fAOi 
"Go cijeAT) 5AC Iaoi pA cuAifo. 



GENEALOGICAL TABLE No. IL 
(From Duald MacFirbis's Book of Mimster and several Irish MSS. in R.I. 

Academy and T.C.D.) 

Maiion (ob. A.D. 1038). 
Brodchon. 
Cumara. 
Donogh Donn. 
Cian. 
Donogh na Himerce Tiomcuil (ob. a.d. 1212). 

Sept of O'Mahon of Ivagha. Sept of O'Mahon of Kinelmeky. 

O mAC5<\riitu\ x^n jTuin l*.\t^c.\rl.\15. O mACSAttitiA C^ift)f e^^c. 

DiARMUiD MoR I. (eldest Concobar (2nd son). 

son). Aodh. 

Tadhg. Maghnus. 

Donogh Ratha Dreodin. , Donogh Maol. 
Diarmuid Mor II. (Sliocht Diarmada Oig.) Diarmuid Cairbreach. 



. I. 
Finin. 
Donal. 

Diarmuid Runtach. 
Concobar Cabaicc. 
Concobar Fiona (na neach). 
Concobar Fionn (na ccros). 
Concobar Fionn. 
Donal. 
Concobar. 



Diarmuid Og Tadhg Buidhe. 

(a-n-deasmuman, i.e. of Diarmuid. 



Desmond"). 

Sean. 

Diarmuid. 

Concobar. 

Tadhg Meirgeach 
(ancestor of the Co. 
Kerry families of Dun- 
loe Castle, Kilmorna, 
Dromore, and of one 
Co. Cork family, fl. a.d. 
570.) 



Donal. 

Diarmuid Spaineach. 

Finin. 

Maolmuadh, 

Cian. 

Mahon. 



GENEALOGICAL TABLE No. III. 

(From MSS. No. 23, G. 22, R.I. Academy & H. 25-1296, T.C. 

Minor Septs in Muskerry. 

Clan-Finin-na- Clan Concobair. 
Ceithirne. 

Macraith (eldest son Concobar (4th from 

of Diarm. Mor I.) ist O'M.Carbery). 



O'M. Sept of Ibh 
Floin Luadh. 

Tadhg an dir (br. of 
Diarmuid Mor II. ) 

Finin, 

Diarmuid Buidhe. 

Diarmuid. 

Donogh. 

Diarmuid. 

Eoghan. 

Diarmuid. 

Sean. 

Diarmuid. 

Sean. 

Diarmuid. 

Concobar an Cro- 
char. 

Donogh. 

Cian. 

Cian an Crochar 
(fl. A.D. 1719). 

Seamus (James, 
Lieut. -Colonel in 
the Spanish ser- 
vice, ob. A.D. 1776.) 



Finin (a quo Clan 

Finin). 
Cian. 

Donogh Ruadh. 
Donogh Ruadh. 
Maolmuadh. 
Mahon. 
Diarmuid. 
Mahon Ruadh. 



Donogh. 

Mahon. 

Donogh. 

Finin. 

Finin Og. 

Finin Og Maol. 

Donogh. 



O'M. of Kilna- 

glory. 

Donal (2nd son of 

Diarmuid Mor II. ) 
Finin. 
Tadhg. 
Donal. 
Maolmuad. 
Concobar. 
Donal. 
Tadhg. 
Tadhg Og. 
Concobar. 
David. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 2 I 

PART II. 

FROM A.D. 400 TO A.D. IOI4. 

Of the predecessors of Mahon whose names are given in ^Genealogical 
Table No. I., ten are known only through that document. Ten others, as 
also three chieftains (who, having left no sons are not included in the 
genealogy) are mentioned in the Annals and other historical works — no 
inconsiderable proportion of the entire number of predecessors, if we bear 
in mind the destruction^ of so many of our ancient manuscripts by the 
Danish and English invaders. In the Appendix to the last vol. of the 
Annals of the Four Masters, the editor has diligently put .together all that 
had been handed down about Olioll Olum and the first four of his suc- 
cessors. Core was not included in those researches, and it becomes 
necessary, therefore, to gather from various sources and, for the first time, 
combine into one narrative the scattered notices regarding that personage 
in the early records. , 

Core was the son of Lugaidh, and grandson of Olioll Flanbeg, a former 
King of Munster. The Book of Leinster (289 a. 1., Dr. Atkinson's Ed.) 
gives an account, partly historical and partly legendary, of an event of 
his youth. In consequence of an accusation made by his stepmother, he 
incurred the wrath of his father, who obliged him to leave Ireland, and 
betake himself to Scotland. The wrathful Lugaidh caused to be inscribed 
in ogham on his son's shield a request to King Feradach to put him to 
death without delay. But Gruibne, King Feradach 's poet, whom Core 
had saved from captivity in Ireland, noticed the inscription, and, having 
explained its fatal import to Core, succeeded in persuading the King that 
it meant a request that he would give his daughter in marriage to the son 
of Lugaidh. The marriage accordingly took place. The legend is, 
obviously, borrowed from the Homeric story of Bellerophon, in the sixth 
book of the Iliad, and unskilfully borrowed, as it substituted a visible 
inscription, for the secret symbols inscribed on the "folded tablet." The 
legend evidently originated at a much later period, when the ogham had 
ceased to be used, and was regarded as having been a cryptic form of 
writing. But, notwithstanding the legendary accretion, the historical fact 
that Core sojourned in Scotland, and married the daughter of a Scottish 
prince, seems to be attested by the firm belief of the Mor Maers of Magh- 

1 The genealogy for the period before the end of the ninth century was derived by MacFirbis 
and the other antiquaries from the Saltair of Cashel, written by Cormac MacCuilenan. This work, 
now lost, was extant in 16S0, as O'Curry proves. He might have added that it was known later. 
O'Rahilly in his Elesiy on 0' Mahony, father of Daniel of Dunloe Castle, in 1706 (Rev. P. 
Dineeji's edition, 1900), alludes to it as if as accessible as the Book of Ahmster : — 

" His pedigree is there complete, 

In the Book of Munster, written from the first man, 
Or in the Psalter of Cashel without deceit, 
Which Cormac wrote, the fountain of the bards." 
Incidentally it may be stated, that some information supplied in O'Rahilly's poem, taken in 
connection with MS. 23 G. 22 R.I. Academy, establishes conclusively the descent of the Daniel 
aforesaid from Dermod Mor, chief of Ivagha, who married the daughter of the Marquis Carew 
about A.D. 1300. 

2 See Dr. W. K. Sullivan's Introduction to O'Curry's Mariners and Custorris of the Ancient 
Irish, for numerous instances of the destruction of MSS 



2 2 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Ghergin (Mar) and Leamna (Lennox) that they were descendants of his 
son Maine Leamna. Of this beUef the Mor Maers in a.d. 1014 gave 
evidence in coming to assist their brethren of the Clan Cuirc and their 
more remote relative, Brian, at the battle of Clontarf, where one of them 
was killed. This belief was shared by the Irish antiquaries, who reckoned 
Magh-Ghergin (Mar) among the "Eoganachts,"' and inserted the pedigree 
of tlie Mor Maers in the genealogy of the tribes of the Clan Cuirc. On 
the identification of these "High Stewards" with the Stuarts, see Cam- 
brensis Eversus, vol. iii., p. 65. Certainly the descent of the Stuarts 
from a Celtic ancestry was maintained by Hector Boethius in his History 
of Scotland, and must, therefore, have been acknowledged by his patron, 
James V. The theory of their Norman extraction is precariously sustained, 
and does not account for the origin of the name Stuart, so naturally ex- 
plained as the English equivalent of Mor Maer. 

After the death of his father, Core returned to Ireland, and resided at his 
Fort of Raithleann, according to Bardic tradition, until he was elected King 
of Munster. The circumstances of his election are narrated at some length . 
by Keating [History of Ireland), who had access to sources now lost about 
Munster affairs. He relates that Connal, of Dalcassian descent, laid claim 
to the vacant throne of Munster, that the senior race of Eoghan Mor 
resisted his claim, maintaining the right of Core, and that the interregnum 
continued until the question was referred to the brehons of Munster, who . 
decided in favour of Core. 

He selected Cashel as the royal residence, and is said to have reigned 
thirty years. ^ According to O'Flaherty [Ogygia, part iii., c. 81), the 
territory where he fixed his residence was called Corca Eachrach, and 
extended in length from Tibraid Arainn (Tipperary) to Dun Andriais, on 
the north side of Knockraffon. Place-names called after him were, Mus- 
craighe Cuirc, the Barony of Clanwilliam, Co. Tipperary; Dun Cuirc, 
which has been identified with Bruree, and Rath Cuirc, which, as we have 
seen, was the bardic name of Rath Raithleann.^ 

The Four Masters, under the year 438, have the following entry : "The 
tenth year of Laeghaire. The Seanchus and the Feinechus of Eire were 
purified and written ; the old books having been collected into one place « 
at the request of St. Patrick. These were the nine supporting props by 
whom it was done. ... as the following quatrain testifies : 

"Laeghaire, Core, Daire the stern, Patrick, Benen, and 
Cairnech the just, 
Ross, Dubtach, Fergus . . . nine props these of the 
Seanchus Mor." 

3 O'Flaherty (in his Ogygia) gives from ancient authorities the following list of "Eoghanachts," 
or territories of tribes descended from Eoghan Mor : — Ania, Lochlein, Cashel, Raithleann, 
Glendamnach, Aran, Rosarguid, Moyghergin (Mar) in Scotland. 

4 See UioJA f il eituji, etc. " King of the race of Heber and the length of their reigns," 
by O'Dugan (ob. 1372). Edited from the Book of Ballymote by O'Daly, 1847. The quatrain 
about Core commences as follows : — 

" Cojic triAC lui5T)eAc tAoc"OA An peA|i 
CeuT) peAit -00 fuij A c-CAifiot," etc., etc. 

5 Dr. Todd in Appendix to his edition of the Wars of the Gael and the Gall, calls Core, 
"Connal Core," by a curious mistake, forming for him an appellation compounded from his 
rival's name and his own. 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 23 

The quatrain was taken from the Glossary of Cormac (ob. 903), which has 
been edited by Whitley Stokes. On this entry Dr. O'Donovan makes the 
following comment: "The quotation is apochryphal. Core was evidently 
not a contemporary of Laeghaire or of St. Patrick's mission, for he was 
the grandfather of Acnghus, the first Christian king." This is a curious 
blunder ; the argument is — Core could not be alive in 438, for his grandson 
was killed in 489 ! An interval of fifty years between the death of a grand- 
father and that of his grandson is an ordinary occurrence. He does not 
seem to be aware that the quatrain was taken from Cormac's Glossary, 
where it is quoted as an ancient authority. Professor Bury {Life of St. 
Patrick) gives an ingenious defence of the historic truth of the old quatrain. 
The only other extant records regarding Core are three poems ascribed to 
Torna Eigeas ("the learned"), a contemporary poet, who had been foster- 
father or instructor of Core and Nial. In two of these the bard seeks to 
reconcile his two favourites, who had become rival claimants for the 
monarchy of Ireland. The third and best known of these poems is an 
Elegy on both princes, consisting of fifty-two lines, a translation of which 
is contained in Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, vol. ii. The authenticity of 
this piece is disputed, but (as appears at least to the present writer), some 
considerations of weight can be adduced in favour of the tradition that 
ascribed it to Torna. The inevitable modernization to which all popular 
poems are subjected, in the course of transcription or recitation through 
many centuries, has not entirely obliterated all marks of its antiquity. A 
few archaic forms tell more for its antiquity than many modernized forms 
and expressions for its more recent origin. Again, there are in it no 
anachronisms, no Christian expressions, such as might be expected in an 
Elegy written by a Christian bard, but which could not emanate from one 
traditionally known as the "last bard of the Pagan race." Moreover, 
the author, himself a Southern, impartially eulogises^ 
"Nial, the son of hundred-battled Con, 
And Core of Eoghan Mor the not less glorious son." 
Such impartiality cannot be looked for in any poem that was not written 
at some date preceding Brian Boru's aggression on the hereditary right 
of the Northern princes to the Crown of Ireland. Since that event, the 
mutual animosities of Northern and Southern bards and annalists have 
often been in evidence, as in the divergent accounts of Malachy's action 
at Clontarf, and in the poetical contest known as "The Contention of the 
Bards," in the sixteenth century, which commenced with a censure of 
Torna for his impartiality. 

Core had four sons — Natfraoch, Cas, Maine Leamna (who settled in 
Scotland) and Cairbre Luachra. Neither of these succeeded him as King 
of Munster. Keating states that his successor was Connal Echluach, who 
was succeeded in 453 by Core's grandson, Aenghus, son of Natfraoch, 
who became the first Christian king. 

Cas, Mahon's ancestor, is said to have married Beibhionn, daughter 
of the chief of Corcalaidhe (Corcalee). His name is alluded to in the 
Book of Rights, as already quoted, in connection with his residence, Rath- 
leann, and the privilege of exemption from tribute enjoyed by him and his 
tribe. His descendants are called the "Clan of Cas," but in verse only, 
not in any prose chronicle. His son was 

6 From John Dalton's English translation. 



24 THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Eachaidh(eACAi-6, genitive case e^CAC, hence Ui Eacac, the descendants 
of Eachaidh). He was cousin-german of Aenghus, above referred to, who 
was killed in battle in 489. This circumstance determines approximately 
the time when he flourished, and he may be considered to have been the 
first Christian chief of the tribe. He acquired the cognomen of Cruadh, 
the hard or severe (see page 194 ante), and this is all we known about his 
personal history. From his name was formed the patronymic designation 
of his Sept — the Ui Eachach. To this Sept-name was added by the 
Annalists generally, "Mumhain," i.e., "of Munster," to distinguish the 
Sept from a similarly-named Sept, the Ui Eachach of Uladh, i.e., Ulidia, 
the territory comprising Down and Antrim. The Chronicum Scotorum 
has the following entry: "A.D. 553. Death of Eachaid, son of Conlaed 
of Uladh, from whom the Ui Eachach Uladh are descended." As the 
distinguishing epithets were not invariably attached to these Sept names ■ 
in ancient Irish literature, it often happened that passages intended to 
refer to one of these Septs were understood of the other. Thus Cronnelly, 
in his account of the O'Mahonys, applies to the southern clan a passage 
from the poem of Maolmora of Fahan (ob. a.d. 884) which was intended 
by that author for the northern Ui Eachach. The (Bodleian) Annals of 
Innisfallen have frequent references to both Septs, but do not add the 
distinctive epithets "Mumhan" or "Uladh" — a neglect that is very em- 
barrassing to the reader. As has been already stated (p. 187, part i.), this 
Sept-name continued to be used for many centuries concurrently with the 
hereditary surname of O'Mahony borne by the chieftain's family from 
the end of the eleventh century. Even towards the close of the sixteenth 
century, Mac Brody,^ in a poem on the Eoganachts, while describing the- 
other southern tribes by the names by which they are generally known, 
applies to the O'Mahonys the ancient appellation of their Sept. 

But to return to Eochaidh — the Book of Leinster (p. 326), which spells 
the name Eocho, says: "Cas had one son, Eocho, Eocho had two sons — 
Criomthan and Lugaidh;" elsewhere five others are enumerated. 

Criomthan, the eldest son and successor of Eochaidh, died while his 
children were young, and his brother Lugaidh, called "Cicech," or the 
"Breasted," who had acted as foster-father^ of the children, succeeded 
him as Ri Raithleann. In the Irish Life of St. Fi72har, chap. 22, "Disert 
Mor" is said to be in the territory of the "descendants of Criompthan. " n 
This place-name is preserved! in the name of a parish, Desertmore. It 
was in Lugaidh's time that St. Senanus came to live at Tuaim Aba, after- 
wards called Inniscarra, about a.d. 520'. Ancient Irish Chieftains used 
not to object to outsiders coming to settle down in unoccupied parts of 
their territory, but were most particular in requiring tribute in recognition 
of their authority,® and Lugaidh, the son of a convert from paganism and 

7 StuAJ on eACAc nA ■ftiAn nei-o 
"Oo cl.AnntJit) CoJAin iat) fein. 

8 The passage in page 8, describing in metaphorical language the manner in which Lugaid 
reared his foster children, was quoted as an excerpt from a Miscellany of the Firbises, but has 
been since discovered by the present writer in the Book of Leinster, p. 326. 

9 Miss Eleanor Hull in her Text Book of Irish Literature, makes the following well- 
founded statement : — " Even when a whole sept migrated, as in the ca?e of the Deise, there was 
no lack of space for them to settle in. In proportion to the population land was plentiful. Any 
man could have a piece of land for the asking, paying for it by tribute or body service to the 

chi?f." 



THE O MAHOINYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 2$ 

imperfectly imbued with Christian ideas, was not disposed to make an 
exception in favour of Senanus and his monastery. He sent to demand 
tribute, but Senanus rephed that he would pay no tribute to any earthly 
king-. Lug-aidh sent a racehorse to he maintained at the monastery as a 
token of sul^jection, but the horse fell into the Lee and was drowned, only 
its forequartcr (carra) appearing above water; whence the name Innis- 
carra- — a good specimen of the etymological myth. The account of the 
dispute is given in two Latin Lives published by Colgan [Acta Sanctorum, 
March 8th and an Irish Life in Stokes' Anecdota Oxoniensia, from the 
Book of Lismore. The source drawn upon in these Lives was the metrical 
narrative of St. Colman, son of Lenin, the first Bishop of Cloyne, who, 
according- to the Annals of the Four Masters, died in a.d. 600. The fol- 
lowing passage is taken from Stokes' translation of St. Colman's Irish 
verses : 

"A wonderful horse had Lugaidh, 
A more beautiful horse than he was not found in Ireland, 
"Take my horse to the Cleric that it may be fed by him on corn." 

The king of Raithleann went to them from the south, haughty his 

onrush, 
In front of every one until he was with hostful Senan, 
Then did Lugaidh the Breasted, say, as to^ the Cleric, 
With fierce utterance, that he should be cast in to the water. 

Not good what thou hast done, O Lugaidh, 

To noble Senan give his desire, say his fosterlings, 

Give his full desire to the Cleric as is very gladful 

Without affliction of speech, that it maybe a tale to the world's end. 

The twain together, Aedh and radiant Loigure, 

When they did Senan's will . . of offering. 

He gave them with peace and goodly children the kingdom of 

Raithleann, 
Said the word of the apostle that ennobles labours. 
That a realm not rude should be unto Aedh and heroic Loigure." 

Aedh was the eldest of the three sons of Criomthan, Aedh, Laeghere, 
and Cormac. ^° Laeghere is made the eldest in the tribal genealogies of his 
descendants, the Clan of O'Donoghue, but the collocation of the names in 
St. Colman's poem, the earliest document in which the two are mentioned, 
is decisive on the subject. One is surprised to find that the mild and con- 
siderate Aedh of the foregoing narrative acquired in after life the agnomen 
of Uargarbh ("the overbearing"). He was the first distinctive ancestor of 
Mahon and his posterity, his predecessors being the common ancestors of 
both tribes, the O'Mahonys and O'Donoghues. His descendants were 
called, after his name, the Cinel Aedh (whence Kinalea), and a genealogy 
under that heading, and commencing with Maolmuad, father of Cian, and 
grandfather of Mahon, is to be found in the Book of Leinster (loc. citat). 
The son of Aedh was 

10 -Who was the contemporary King of Munster during the Chieftainship of Tighernach, y 
and at the date of St. Finbar's birth? This is a question not easily determined. An entry in 
the Chronicon Scotorum under the year 573, is as follows: — "The battle of Femhin gained by 



26 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA, 

Tighernach (UigeAiAnAt, pr. Teernagh). The time of Tighernach's 
Chieftainship was made memorable by the birth of St. Finbar at Raith- 
leann. The ancient Irish Life of St. Finbar, which is the original on 
which the two Latin Lives were formed, having recorded that Amergin, 
his father, was the pribhgobha, chief metal-worker, of the Ri Raithleann, 
adds: "who at that time was Tighernach, son of Aedh Urgarbh, son of 
Criompthan, son of Eocaidh, son of Cas, son of Core." The predecessors 
of Tighernach are here given exactly the same, and in the same order 
as in the genealogy of his race, and this passage presents a spedmen 
of the incidental confirmation of such registers by the old chroniclers' 
inveterate habit of defining a person about whom they wrote, by^ attaching 
to his name two or more ancestors. The statement of the biographer, 
that the prince of Raithleann "devoted himself and his followers to S'-. 
Finbar in perpetuity," may be regarded as suggested by the undoubted 
fact that at a subsequent period (as we know from "Saltair na Rann"^^) 
St. Finbar was recognised as the patron saint of Tighernach's tribe, the 
descendants of Eochaidh. Within their Sept-land there were, at 
least, four churches bearing his name — one in Templemartin, one 
near Kilmurry in the townland now called Warrenscourt, one a mile 
west of Dunmanway, and oiue in Kilmoe. This is attested by the 
place-name, Kilbarry. In the Scottish island of Barra the same patron 
is venerated by a Gaelic-speaking population, whose church is Kilbarr; 

Cormac, son of Criompthan, King of Munster, in which Colman Beg was defeated." The 
editor of that work took the unwarrantable liberty of altering the text by substituting Cairbre for 
Cormac, adopting a marginal note written by O'Flaherty in his MS. copy of the Chronicon. In 
all probability this " Cormac, son of Criompthan," was Cormac, the brother of Aedh Urgarbh 
(see Book of Leiiisler, p. 326) and grandson of Eachaid, the ancestor of the Ui Eachach, who 
flourished about 489, when his cousin-german, Aengus, King of Cashel, was killed. It will be 
difficult to find among the descendants of Core, another " Cormac, son of Criompthan," who 
must have been born about 520 or 530. The Annals of the Four Masters have in an entry 
under the year 571, the battle of Femhin, with the name Cairbre substituted for Cormac, but 
without the epithet Crom. The Book of Leinster, in its list of the Munster kings "after the 
faith," has the name of Cairbre Crom, son of a predecessor Criompthan Crom, who by the 
epithet Crom, is clearly distinguished from Criompthan Srem or Srebh (ancestor of Caomh), 
mentioned in the same page, in the sentence just preceding the list of kings. The author of the 
Annals of Ulster records the battle of Femhin, and the name of the vanquished, but omits the 
name of the victor — perhaps feeling the difficulty of determining who he was. Of course, the 
modern Annals of Innisf all en cannot be quoted to settle this question. As regards the name 
" Cairbre Crom," it is a curious phenomenon and one not easily explained, that it should have 
been "iven to many chiefs, to a bishop of Clonmacnoise, and to a territory. Keating, who seeks 
to identify Cairbre, son of Criompthan Sreb with " Cairbre Crom," derives the latter name from 
Crom Cromglas, where Cairbre was nurtured. But in that case the name would be Cairbre 
Cruim (geniiive). He ignores the further difficulty of accounting for a Criompthan Crom. 

li In a poem on the Patron Saints of Tribes, attributed by Keating and Colgan to Aengus 
the Culdee, in the first half of the ninth century, the passage regarding Barra, patron of the 
Ui Eachach, briefly quoted in a previous page, is here given in full, in the original :— 

" tli eACAC 6 CA-|in 50 CotiCAij 
SuAf Aiji Aline 
-Af e A ftun Af jiAc ^ieiT)e 
Ajt cut t)Ai|i|\e. 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 27 

and it is a curious coincidence that, according to Martin, ^^ «' their greatest 
asseverations were by this saint," just as we find in the Vision of Mac 
Conglinne that "dar Barra" (by Barra) was an exclamation used for '^he 
same purpose in Ivagha, where the scene of the story is laid. There can 
be no doubt that this island must have been colonized by the Ui Eachach, 
noted for their seamanships^ in the eleventh century, and that they intro- 
duced with their language and religion the name of the Patron Saint, 
who was born in their Sept-land. Nothing could be more improbable 
than that some other tribe colonized the island, and that in selecting a 
name for it, for its church, and for a small chapel, the colonists ignored 
their own tribal patron. 

The date usually assigned for the birth of St. Finbar, i.e., a.d. 570 
(circiter), compared with the dates of the accession and death of Fedlimidh 
(of whom presently), enables us to determine in a general way the time 
when Tighernach flourished. During his chieftainship the power of the 
tribe must have been considerable, for his son and successor, 

Fedlimidh, became King of Munster. He succeeded Fergus Scandail, 
or Sganuil, who was slain in 580 (Annals of the Four Masters). The 
reign of Fedlimidh was not a long one. Under the year 586, the 
Chronicon Scotorum has an account of his death. The Bodleian Annals of 
Innisfallen enter his death under the year 585 : "Mors Fedlimthe meicc 
Tighernaig, Righ Caissil. " 

O'Dugan's Kings of the Race of Heher is altogether at variance with 
the above Annals, and, indeed, seems a very dubious authority. As to 
the parentage of Fedlimidh and the date of his death, and on Munster 
affairs generally, there can be no better authority than the ancient Annals 
of Innisfallen, called the "Bodleian." 

Dr. O'Brien who, like a good Dalcassian, systematically reduces to 
Kings of Desmond (South Munster) those Eoganacht princes who in other 
Annals figure as Kings of Munster, in his "Annals of Innisfallen," sets. 
down Fedlimidh as a King of Desmond who succeeded Fergus Sganuil m 
580, and died in 584. For this he incurred the wrath of Dr. O 'Donovan, 
who says :^* "This is one of Dr. O'Brien's intentional falsifications to 
detract from the ancient importance of the Eoganachts. " It is true that 
Dr. O'Brien shows in his compilation, that he was too much under 
the influence of the theory that he had formed about the ancient import- 
ance of the Dalcassian descendants of Olioll Olum, but the word "in- 
tentional" is unjustifiably severe, and Dr. O'Donovan should have 
remembered that he was often glad to avail himself of materials in tl)is 
compilation, derived from sources now lost. 

Of Fergus, the son of Fedlimidh, we find no mention in the Annals, nor 
of the son of Fergus, Bee or Bece (pron. Beke). The place-name Kinelmeky 
(Cineal m-Beice or Cinelm-Beice, i.e. , the race of Bece) preserves the name of 
the latter. The name designated the family or descendants of Beke, but 

12 Martin's Description of the Western Isles, 1703. The writer has recently seen an in- 
teresting letter from the island, by which it appears that among its place-names are Tobar Barra 
and Gougane Barra. 

13 See Wars of the Gael and the Goill (Dr. Todd's edition), p. 137 : " The Ui Eachach 
Mumhan, and such men of Erin as were fit to go to sea." 

14 Note on entry for 486, Annals of the Four Masters. 



28 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

was never used as a name for the whole Tribe, as Cinel-Aodha undoubtedly 
was. It would seem that the immediate descendants of Beke and their 
families were put in possession of the portion of the Sept-land in the 
vicinity of Rath Raithleann, which thus got the name of Kinelmeky, while 
the more distant eastern portion continued to be called by the name of 
Kinelea, the original name of the Sept-land before Carbery, Ivagha, and 
Muskerry were annexed. As Fedlimidh, King of Munster, died in 585 
or 589, it may be assumed that his grandson, Beke, flourished between 
650 and 700. Between 589 and the earlier portion of the tenth century 
we find no mention made of any of the names in the genealogical list, but 
the records are not silent about Chiefs of the Clan who, like Lugaidh, Ri 
Raithleann, already mentioned, were not included in that list, having- had 
no sons, or their posterity having died out. 

Flann, a predecessor of Bece, "one of the Mahonys," as Smith, by a 
curious prolepsis, describes him, is stated, on the authority of an old 
historical poem, to have added Muskerry to his possessions (p. 14). 

According to the author of the Vision o'j Mac Conglinne, Pichan 
"King of the Ui Eachach," was a contemporary of Cahal, son of Finguine, 
King of Munster, who, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, 
died in 737. In the eighth century the Abbey of Kilbrenin was founded 
by St. Aodh (Latinized, Aidus), according to Usher and Colgan, "at 
Enagh mid-Brenin, in that part of the Co. Cork which is called Mus- 
craighe. " ^^As this Abbey, of which some ruins still exist, was only a 
mile distant from Raithleann, and in the Sept-land attached to the fort, 
there can be no reasonable doubt that it was built by some eighth century 
Ri Raithleann and his Sept. From the Irish Life of St. Finbar it may 
be inferred that the site of Raithleann was in Muscraigh Mitine, though 
afterwards and at present included in Kinelmeky. 

In 827 the (original) Annals of Innisfallen have an entry of "the, death 
of Donal, son of Cahal, King of the Eachach." 

A.D. 844. The history known as Wars of the Gael and the Gaill relates 
that "the men of the South of Ireland under Donchadh, King of Eoganacht 
Ui Eachach, gave battle to the Danes." ^^Here we find the head of the 
tribe performing the functions of the titular King of Munster of that time. 
It will be observed that he commanded the men of the "South of Ireland," 
i.e., of Munster, not merely "of South Munster." The Annals of the 
Four Masters have an entry df his death in the same year. 

In A.D. 903 was fought the celebrated battle of Bealach Mughna, or 
Ballagh Moon, in the south of the Co. Kildare, two miles north of Carlow, 
between the Ard-Ri Flann with two provincial kings on the one side, and 
Cormac Mac Cuilenan, King of Munster, on the other. The Annals of 
the Four Masters under the above date have this entry: "The battle was 
gained over Cormac, and he himself was slain . . . These were the 
nobles who fell with him, viz., Fogartach the wise, Lord of Ciarraighe- 
Cuirche, . . . Maelmora, Lord (tighearna) of Raithlin, . . . and 
many other nobles besides them, and six thousand men along with them." 
On this, the Editor, Dr. O'Donovan, has the note: "Raithlin, this was the 
seat of O'Mahony, chief of Kinelmeky, in the Co. Cork." The Chronicon 

IS Archdall's Monasticon Hiberniciim, 1703, p. 57. 
»6 See Dr. Todd's edition, p. 19, footnote. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 29 

Scotorum of Duald Mac Firbis, now held to be an edition of the Annals 
of Tighernach, Abbot of Clonmacnoise (ob. 1088), has a similar entry 
under the date a.d. 907, but gives Maelmora the time-honoured designa- 
tion of Ri Raithleann, or as it spells the name, Rathalinne. This dis- 
astrous battle had a far-reaching effect on the fortunes of Maelmora's 
Clan, and on the future government of Munster. It weakened the 
Eoganacht Clans (who alone supported Cormac in the battle) and thus 
prepared the way for the rise of Dalcassian supremacy. 

From his place in the genealogy, it would seem that "Cian, son of 
Spellan" — not to be confounded with his more celebrated descendant of 
Brian Boru's time — was the brother, and hence the successor, of Maelmora. 
Clan's son was Bron ; this, and not Bran (Four Masters), was the correct 
spelling of the name according to most of the genealogical documents 
and the Annals of Tighernach. Rosbrin in his western territory, Uofb-pom. 
(Broin genitive case), was obviously derived from his name. 

His son was Maolmuadh, born about a.d. 930, King of the Eachach," 
according to the Annals of Tigernach, and "Lord of Desmond" according to 
the Four Masters. It would serve no useful purpose to anglicise his name 
into "Molloy," as many writers have done, which had the effect of misleading 
Dr. Todd into supposing him to have been the ancestor, not only of the 
O'Mahonys, but also of the Leinster family of O'Molloy, descended from 
a different Maolmuadh. His last descendant in the line of the Kinelmeky 
Chiefs (a.d. 1602) is named Moelmo in the Pacata Hihernia. 

The history of Munster affairs in the tenth century requires, as much 
as any other period in Irish history, to be re-written from a critical 
examination of sources. What passes as a history of the period in our 
so-called "popular" and "school" histories is, to a large extent, mis- 
representation. Three causes contributed to the production of this species 
of history. The compilers accepted as an unquestionable authority the 
Wars of the Gael and the Gaill, written by an avowed and extreme 
panegyrist of Mahon and Brian. They are under the influence of a belief 
in the mythical Will of OlioU Olum regarding the "Alternate Sovereignty", 
of Munster. They show no knowledge of what is contained in the Annals 
of the Four Masters and other Annals about the events of the time. 

The work known as^'^The Wars of the Gaedhill and the Gaill (i.e. , The 
Wars of the Irish with the Foreigners") translated by O 'Curry, and 
supplied with numerous notes by; O 'Donovan, was in 1867 edited by 
Dr. J. H. Todd, who prefixed to it a critical introduction, and divided it 
into chapters for convenience of reference. It may be considered as composed 
of two parts, which are practically separate works. The first part, extending 
to chapter xl., narrates the numero'us invasions of the Norwegians and 
Danes, and their depredations, particularly in the South of Ireland. The 
narrative of these events written in the ordinary, simple style of Irish 
Annalists is admitted tO' be a trustworthy record of the period. The 
second part, from chapter xl. to the end, recounts in bombastic language 
the exploits of Mahon and Brian and of the Dalcassian race, culminating 
in the victory of Clontarf. The author was, says Dr. Todd (Introd. p. xix.) 
"a contemporary and strong partisan of King Brian Boru," and there is 
"abundant evidence" that Interpolations In prose and verse were inserted 

17 This will be hereinafter quoted as IVars of the Gael, for brevity's sake. 



30 THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

by a transcriber who was of the same tribe and actuated by the same party 
spirit as the original writer. To those who are unacquainted with the 
work, the extreme intensity of the party spirit that pervades it cannot be 
made evident without numerous quotations for which space is not available. 
We may fairly characterise it, adopting- the phraseology of modern criticism, 
as a "Dalcassian pamphlet." Yet it is from this work (and chiefly from 
its interpolated parts) — without giving the slightest intimation to their 
readers as to the bias with which it was written- — that modern compilers 
of Irish history have transferred to their pages whole passages about the 
contest between Mahon and Maolmuadh. A historian's estimate of the^ 
contest referred to must depend to a certain extent on the opinion he may 
have formedas to the truth or falsehood of the oft-repeated statement that, in 
accordance with the will of OHoll Olum, the sovereignty of Munster was 
to be enjoyed alternately by a descendant of his eldest son, Eoghan Mor, 
and of his second son, Cormac Cas ; that both races of his descendants 
accepted their ancestor's will as a kind of constitutional law and observed 
it for several generations. In modern times, the revival of a claim to 
sovereignty that had been in abeyance for over five hundred years would 
not be treated seriously ; but in ancient Ireland the almost religious venera- 
tion for the memory of a founder of a dynasty would be considered to ' 
justify an attempt to' restore his arrangement, though set aside for many/ 
centuries. 

That there never was any such "will," and that the two races never 
shared alternately the chief rule of Munster, is a conclusion that the 
present writer has arrived at from the following arguments : — 

1. The author of the Wars of the Gael knew nothing of the alleged 
will. In chapters xli. and xlii., he puts together a number of ancient 
testimonies eulogizing the valour of the Dalcais, and indicating their 
privileges. Amongst these testimonies is a forged prophecy of S. Colman 
of Lenin, declaring that their supremacy was to last to the end of time, 
and a quatrain of Cormac Mac Cuilenan, ^^King of Cashel, on their right 
to the van in the Munster army in attack, and to the rear in retreat. 
But, though the tribal historian strongly asserts their alternate right 
to the provincial throne, he quotes no ancient authority for this alleged 
privilege, which he bases, apparently, on the great importance and military 
prowess of the tribe. He is silent about Olioll Olum. The conclusion is 
inevitable — the legend of the will was never heard of before the time ot 
that chronicler, that is to say, before the death of Brian. 

2. Keating was a believer in the alleged "will of Olioll"; in fact he 
was do'minated by this belief, and in accordance with it was shaped much 
of his history. But he unconsciously produced, from his own researches, 
decisive evidence against his view in the account of the accession of Core, 
summarised in a previous page. The Eoghanacht clans, who in the latter 
portion of the fourth century put forward the claim of Core as a successor 
to a Munster King of their own race, cannot have admitted the existence 
of the law of alternate succession ; and the Brehons who decided in favour 
of Core ignored the existence of any such law. It was by their decision, 

»8 Keating puts in the mouth of Cormac a speech admitting the "law of alternate suc- 
cession." This speech must be regarded as derived from some recent and untrustworthy source. 
Had a record of any such expression of opinion by Cormac existed in the time of the author of 
the IVars of the Gael, it would have been known to and eagerly quoted by that chronicler. 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 3I 

and not by any ancient law, that Connall succeeded Core, if it be true that 
he did succeed him. 

3. There is further evidence that the Eog-hanacht race knew nothing 
of this legendary will. On the day after the Battle of Clontarf, Cian, 
son of Maolmuadh, refused to acknowledge his brother-in-law, Donogh, 
son of Brian, as King of Munster, maintaining the superior right of himself 
as being of the elder line of Eoghan Mor. His words were "for Eoghan 
Mor was senior to Cormac Cas," as recorded in the MS., " CAt CluAriA 
CA|\tD," written by a South Munster author, a more reliable exponent 
of the views of Cian and his co-relatives than was the author of Wars of 
the Gael, who represents him as basing his claim on the principle of alter- 
nate succession. 

After the foregoing conclusion had been arrived at, for the reasons 
thus briefly set forth, it was satisfactory to the writer to find that the 
same view had been adopted by one who is a specialist in early Irish 
history. In the November (1906) number of the New Ireland Review, 
in an article on "Ancient Irish Genealogies," Mr. John M'Neill, B.A., 
wiites: "In dealing with the history of Munster, ^^ I shall show that the 
Dal Cais had no share in the sovereignty of Munster before the time of 
Brian." He speaks of "the fiction of alternation." 

We find in the An^ials of the Four Masters, under the year 959, that 
"Fergraidh, son of Clerech, King of Cashel, died." Maolmuadh, lord 
of Desmond, and head of the powerful tribe of the Ui Eachach, one of 
whose chiefs, of the Cinel Laeghere branch, Dubdhabdhoren, died King of 
Munster in 958, laid claim to the vacant position. Maolmuadh 's preten- 
tions were opposed by no one, and he became the recognized King of 
Munster. The proof of this assertion is, that according to an entry (which 
shall be quoted presently) in the Annals of the Four Masters, "the hostages 
of Munster" were in hiis possession, kept in one of his forts called Sgiath 
an Eigis, in Kinelmeky. Mahon, son of Kennedy, head of the Dal Cais, 
had as yet given no evidence of his intention to seize the provincial throne 
in violation of the immemorial prescriptive right of the Eoghanachts. 
He had succeeded after a prolonged and severe struggle in liberating his 
ancestral kingdom of Thomond from the thraldomi of the Danish invaders. 
But he proceeded at onoe to imitate the example of the foreign marauders 
by placing a fleet of boats on the Shannon, and committing depredations 
on the territories of the Irish tribes on both sides of the river. He fol- 
lowed his Danish models only too faithfully, for the Annals tell us that 
in 957, "the Abbey of Clonmacnoise was plundered by Mahon, son of 
Kennedy," and the outrage was repeated by his fleet of boats in 960. 
Swift retribution, however, followed from the injured tribes ; most of the 
boats were seized by the) men of the Leinster side of the river, and the 
Annals record the "victory of Ferghal, King of Connaught, over the 
Munster men on the Shannon; Dal Cais was plundered, and a slaughter 
made against Mahon." Mahon now resolved to seize on the throne of 
Munster, and made an unprovoked and unexpected raid on Maolmuadh's 
territory — which the Annalists thus record: "An army was led by Mahon, 
son of Kennedy, to Sgiath an Eigis, and he carried off the hostages of 
Munster, and expelled (Maolmuadh) the son of Bron, Lord of Desmond." 

19 The promised dissertation on Munster history has not as yet been published. 



32 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

The invasion of Maolmuadh's territory by Mahon, elder brother of 
Brian, is also recorded by the (Bodleian) Annah of Innisjallen in the fol- 
lowing- entry: "A hosting- by Mahon, son of Kennedy, against the son of 
Bron, and he took away his hostages" (co tuce a gialla), that is to say, 
the hostages of others that were in Maolmuadh's custody. This occurred, 
according to the chronology of the Four Masters, as corrected by the 
editor, in a.d. 967, a year before the battle of Sulchoit. Mahon passed 
by Maolmuadh's chief stronghold, Rathleann, his objective point being 
the fort or Dun where the hostages were confined. "Sgiath an Eigis"^" 
has been identified with the hill of Skea, in Kinelmeky, south of the 
Bandon river — a plausible conjecture, if there be on the hill any remains 
of a fort. But it is more probable that it was the ancient name of a 
locality in Kinelmeky, called Curravreeda, CotAA*6 tDpxMg-oe, "the enclosure 
of the hostages." The word in the foregoing entry translated "expelled" 
seems rather to mean "to dislodge from one's position," "to dethrone," 
inasmuch as the "hostages of Munster, being carried off, Maolmuadh 
had no longer any security for the allegiance of those who had given the 
hostages, and who could not now combine with him against Mahon, who 
had them in his power. He was thus reduced to the position of "Lord 
of Desmond,' as he was called by the AnnaUsts, for "he is not a king 
(said the Brehon Law) who has no hostages." But, though Mahon by 
his sudden attack on Sgiath an Eigis had gained this great advantage, 
he did not succeed in conquering Maolmuadh and taking him prisoner (as 
one MS. of the Wars of the Gael asserts). Had he done so, and, as a 
matter of course, obtained members of Maolmuadh's family as hostages, 
his own life v/ould not afterwards have been taken, with the certainty 
of a reprisal. The foregoing passages of the Annals, though most neces- 
sary for understanding the position of Maolmuadh and the motive of his 
subsequent animosity towards Mahon, have apparently never been read, 
certainly never been quoted, or made use of, by any of the numerous com- 
pilers of Irish history, in their accounts of Munster affairs in the tenth 
century. "Great plunders and ravages were now made by Mahon in 
Munster," says the author of Wars of the Gael, who proceeds without 
attending to chronological order, to specify the plundering of two Eogan- 
acht territories (besides Maolmuadh's already mentioned), the sept lands 
of the L^i Enna, of Knockany, and the sept lands of Donovan, ^^ chief of 

20 "This is the place now called the Hill of Skea, to the south of the Bandon River, in 
tlie Barony of Kinelmeky and Co. of Cork. The son of Bron, Lord of Desmond here referred 
to, was Maolmuadh, ancestor of O'Mahony, chief of Kinelmeky." Editor's note, adlnc. Annals 
of Four Masters, vol. ii. It is possible that Sgiath an Eigis (the shield or protection of the 
poet or learned man) may have been the bardic name for Rath Rathleann, and that the entry in 
the Annals was taken from some metrical chronicle, as were many other entries. Dun na-n 
Eigeas was the bardic name for Tara ( Genealogy of Corca Laidhe, p. 70). 

21 Dr. O'Donovan describes this chieftain as of the "senior line" of the descendants of 
Olioll Olum, but he is unable to cite in support of this claim any authority but O'Flaherty, a 
modern writer who died in 1718. The Book of Leinster, p. 319, makes Lugaidh, father of 
Core, Kirg of Munster {vide Genealogical Table, No. I. supra.), the elder brother of Daire 
Cearba, who was the ancestor of Donovan. And in the Book of Ballymote, p. 172, we read : — 
" Olioll Flanbeg duos filios habuit, Lugaidh et Daire Cearba." Dr. O'Donovan was therefore 
mistaken — quandoque bonus dormitat, etc. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 33 

Ui Fidhgenti, ancestor of the O 'Donovans. From this chief, however, 
he cannot have obtained hostages, as subsequent events plainly prove. 
Under the year 969 (corrected chronology) the Annals relate that "an 
army was led by Mahon, son of Kennedy, into Desmond, and he remained 
three nights in Corcach (Cork) and carried off the hostages of Desmond," 
who are distinguished from the "hostages of Munster" seized in 967. 
After these events, his tribal chronicler (Wars of the Gael, page 85) 
states that: "Mahon now assumed the sovereignty of Munster, bravely 
and valiantly, etc., and he continued in the sovereignty six years." His 
reign is, therefore, alleged by the chronicler to have commenced in 970, 
six years before his death, and about ten years after the death of 
Fergraidh,^^ King of Cashel. During those ten years, was the provincial 
throne vacant through the neglect of the Eoghanacht clans to exercise 
their immemorial right of appointment, or was its occupant some other 
chief and not Maolmuadh? No such allegations are made by the author 
of the Wars of the Gael, who thus practically admits that, in the contest 
for the sovereignty, Mahon was the aggressor on a Munster king already 
in pacific possession. Maolmuadh did not acquiesce in Mahon's aggres- 
sion, but, according to the (original) Annals of Innisf alien, in the third 
year after the raid on Sgiath an Eigis, that is to say, in 970 (the very 
year when Mahon assumed the title of King) having mustered an army, 
marched towards Limerick, "obtained the hostages of Munster from 
Limerick to the south, and went against Mahon." The result of the 
encounter with Mahon is not stated. Maolmuadh would seem to have 
succeeded in exacting from the subordinate chiefs other hostages to replace 
those taken off from him in the raid of 967. In 972, the rivals again met 
in battle — an indecisive battle ; according to an entry in the Dublin Annals 
of Innisfallen, "many fell on both sides." In the following year some 
opposition to Mahon's rule seems to have been manifested in West 
Munster, for the Four Masters, under the year 969 (recte 971) record 
that: "Mahon, son of Kennedy, led an army into Kerry and demolished 
several forts, amongst others Dun Fithrech. " It cannot be supposed that 
his numerous raids and plunderings made Mahon a persona grata to the 
people of South Munster, or that they considered him to have by these 
means acquired the title and authority of King of the Province. It is 
strange that Dr. Todd, in writing his Introduction to the Wars of the Gael, 
should have implicitly followed the guidance of the author of that work 

22 The Chronicon Scofornm of Duald Mac Firbis has, under the year 959, the entry :— 
" Fergraidh, son of Clerech, King of Cashel, a suis occisus est," was killed by his own (Eogha- 
nacht) race. This brief and obscure entry is explained by a statement in the (Dublin) Annals of 
Innisfallen, that Donal, son of Murkertagh O'Neill having devastated Munster, the inertness of 
the King of Munster, who did not muster an army to oppose the invader, excited the indignation 
of the Eoghanacht clans, who, headed by Maolmuadh, attacked and defeated Fergraidh and put 
him to death. This statement throws light on the circumstances under which Maolmuadh was 
chosen King of Munster. Dr. Todd shows conclusively ( Wars of the Gael, appendix, p. 239) 
that Donogh, son of Ceallachan Cashel did not succeed Fergraidh, and was never King of 
Munster. The editor of the Chronicon Scotortim adopts Dr. Todd's conclusion and arguments. 
Donogh died in 961, nine years before Mahon assumed the title of King {Chron. Scot.). 

23 The statement of the author of Wars of the Gael, that Donovan's tribe were in possession 
of some land that had belonged to the Dalcais would require to be confirmed by some more im- 
partial authority. 

3 



34 THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha, 

(thoug-h he was the first to call attention to that writer's partizan bias), 
and did not consult the Annals from which the above passages have been 
extracted. Had he read them he would not have written "that Mahon's 
sovereignty in Munster was acknowledged without dispute for about six 
years," that his opponents "did not meet him in battle," that he was 
"the acknowledged sovereign of Maolmuadh and Donovan," who had 
"submitted to him." 

Mahon had hitherto succeeded by being able to bring the undivided 
power of the Dalcais to bear on the individual clans or partial combina- 
tions of the Eoghanacht race. But at length Maolmuadh and Donovan 
agreed to invite or accept the co-operation of the Danish chiefs, Imar, 
of Limerick, and his son, Dubhgen. To have recourse to Danish allies or 
mercenaries in Irish inter-tribal feuds was, unfortunately, no unusual ex- 
pedient in the tenth century — King Brian himself employed Danish cavalry 
in his campaign against Malachi, King of Ireland, and had a Danish son- 
in-law, Sitric. It would be a mis-description of the motives of Maolmuadh 
and Donovan to say, as has been so often said, that they were incited to 
action by jealousy of Mahon's success; they must have been influenced 
by a much stronger passion, revenge for unprovoked injuries. They were 
not the aggressors in the feud. With every disposition to charge them 
with having combined with the Danes against Mahon when defending his 
own territory of Thomond at the battle of Sulchoit, the Dalcassian historian 
is unable to say more than that "they were ready, i.e. disposed, to attack 
the Dalcais, though not for the sake of the foreigners." He asserts that 
"many of the Gaels of Munster" accompanied the Danish army to Sulchoit, 
but in his subsequent narrative, both in prose and verse, he represents 
that battle as a "battle against the foreigners," an expression repeated 
over and over,^* and no Irish names are mentioned in the list of the slain. 
Had either of the two chiefs who were afterwards concerned in the death 
of Mahon, been involved in the Danish rout at Sulchoit, the fact would 
have been exultingly chronicled. 

The object of the confederacy formed against Mahon in the sixth and 
last year of his reign, is thus described: "Maolmuadh, son of Bron, and 
Donovan, son of Cahal, and Imar and Dubhgen, ^^ united their hosts and 
revolted against (literally, turned against) Mahon" (Wars 'of the Gael, 
chap. Ixv.) It is a gross perversion of the plain meaning of that sentence 
to interpret it to mean (as a certain writer did) that the four at their 
meeting resolved to assassinate Mahon. The history expressly states that 
that resolutions^ was agreed on subsequently by Imar and Donovan : "And 
Donovan in his own house betrayed Mahon, having been instigated to it 
by Imar of Limerick, and he delivered him up to Maolmuadh, son of 
Bron, and to Imar, in violation of the saints and clergy of Munster." 
The words, "and to Imar" appear to be an addition to the text, for the 



=4 The compiler of the (Dublin) Annals of Innisf alien states that the battle of Sulchoit was 
gained " over the Danes," not over Danes and Irish. 

'S " United their hosts " meant that they resolved to unite them, for no actual combination 
of their troops is recorded as taking place in that year, the last year of Mahon's life. 

»6 Dr. Todd (Introd. to Wars of the Gael) points out that Donovan did not "invite Mahon 
to a banquet " (as is often stated by modern compilers), but to a conference. 



THE O MAIIONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 35 

subsequent narrative shows that Mahon was deUvered up to Maolmuadh 
alone, and that Imar was not present. 

It is plain that Mahon felt g^reatly alarmed at the confederacy formed 
against him, as he consented to negotiate with Donovan (whom he, 
perhaps, hoped to detach from the confederacy) without even stipulating 
for a neutral place of meeting. He took the precaution of having Dono- 
van's safe conduct guaranteed by ecclesiastical personages; but he should 
have remembered that he himself had set at nought religious influences 
when he plundered the venerated Abbey of Clonmacnoise. The passage 
above quoted clearly exonerates Maolmuadh from complicity in the plot 
to bring Mahon to Donovan's house. In pursuance of the resolution of 
the four confederates to "unite their hosts," he was on his way from the 
south with his clan, and had reached the district of Fermoy, then extend- 
ing to the borders of the present county of Limerick, when he appears to 
have been made aware by a message from his ally that Mahon was being 
sent on to him, and at once gave the fatal order to his men. The most 
authentic and impartial account of this tragic event is the entry in the 
Annals of Tighernach, Abbot of Clonmacnoise (ob. 1088) under the year 
976: "Mahon, son of Kennedy, King of Munster, was killed by Maol- 
muadh, son of Bron, King of the Ui Eachach, having been treacherously 
delivered up by Donovan, son of Cahal, King of Ui Fidhgenti." Here, 
again, as in the passage already quoted from the Wars of the Gael, no 
treachery is attributed to Maolmuadh. ^^ 

The foregoing passages contain all that can be known about this 
event. The circumstantial account or accounts in the Wars of the Gael 
(chap, llx.-lx.) cannot be used as material by anyone who aims at writing 
a critical history of those times. Not only was the writer a strong par- 
tlzan, but, "it is quite evident," says Dr. Todd, "that the narrative is 
not In the state in which the author left it. It bears internal evidence 
of mutilation and interpolation. Sundry poems have been inserted into 
the text, which are clearly of a more recent date. Two accounts not 
altogether consistent with one another are given." Nevertheless, an 
assortment of details derived from this work has been used, and will, 
perhaps, for some time continue to be used to embellish the pages of 
popular histories. 

With no other data from the Wars of the Gael than the names, "Cnoc 
Rebhraidh" and "Ralthlin Mor, In the district of Fermoy, "and the state- 
ment that Maolmuadh, while at the latter place, "saw at a distance the killing 
of Mahon," to arrive at the conclusion that the event took place at Macroom, 
was no ordinary feat of antiquarian reasoning. This feat has been accom- 
plished by altering the text of the Wars of the Gael against all MSS. , and 
by making many fanciful suppositions. It has also been assumed that there 
was a "Leacht Mahon" (Mahon 's grave) near Macroom. This latter sup- 

27 John Collins of Myross, in his " Pedigree of the O'Donovans," asserts that Donovan, on 
account of his co-operation in the death of Mahon, got from Maolmuadh "nine score of plough- 
lands in Carbery." This is a mere invention ; the writer vi^as addicted to the practice of making 
history out of his head. In a letter to a correspondent in 1859, Dr. O'Donovan wrote, "Collins, 
the last Irish poet and antiquary of Carbery, was a shanachie, without any critical knowledge 
whatever." Collins's statement was adopted by the equally uncritical O'Hart. (Irish Pedigrees 
— O'Donovan.) 



36 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

position is negatived by the account which Smith got in 1749 from the 
local antiquaries, who translated for him the ancient chronicle about 
Bealach Leachta, and gave him the traditional information on the subject 
that he made use of in his history; they knew nothing about a "Leacht 
Mahon" or about Mahon's death in that neighbourhood. The name is 
a modern one, imposed by the guess Df some antiquary who lived after 
Smith's time. Even if that place-name were ancient, it would not neces- 
sarily have originated from Mahon, brother of Brian Boru, any more 
than Crossmahon, Ballymahon, Kilmahon, Dunmahon, &c., &c. 

While unsupported by historical evidence, the opinion in question is 
intrinsically improbable. Why should Donovan's troops have conveyed 
Mahon to Macroom, ten miles west of Maolmuadh's residence, or why 
should the latter have instructed his own men to take Mahon to that 
remote locality if surrendered to them in the district of Fermoy? But 
enough of this visionary theory. 

It was deplorable that Mahon's life should have been taken through 
revenge, when he might have been liberated after having been obliged 
to restore the "hostages of Munster" (never intended for himj, and to 
personally give hostages as security that he would abandon the position 
he had usurped. But, in every age, whoever endeavoured to dethrone 
or displace any existing ruler, whether king, prince, or chieftain, if 
he fell into his adversary's hands, met the same sad fate as Mahon. In 
the more civilised and humane eighteenth century, if Charles Edward 
Stuart had been surrendered by a treacherous entertainer to the English 
government, to earn a reward of thirty thousand pounds, the surrender 
would not have been refused on account of the treachery of the enter- 
tainer, and that prince would have ended his days like Monmouth. 

Maolmuadh now re-assumed the sovereignty of Munster without 
opposition from any quarter, and held it for two years. ^^ In the Book of 
Leinstey and the Baok of Munster, his name is included in the list of 
Munster Kings, and even the author of the Wars of the Gael, in a passage 
which shall be quoted presently, acknowledges him to have been the pro- 
vincial king. Brian did not claim the title which his brother had acquired. 
He was waiting for the time when he could assume it after having crushed 
all opposition. He spent two years in preparing for the final contest with 
Maolmuadh and the Eoghanacht. The incredible story that he sent a 
herald to Maolmuadh, challenging him to a pitched battle at Bealach 
Leachta, rests on the questionable authority of a poem interpolated in 
the Wars of the Gael.^® It was not by forewarning his adversaries and 



28 In those lists of the Munster kings (which O'Dugan followed in his Kings of the race of 
Heher) a reign of two years commencing with the death of Mahon, is assigned to Maolmuadh. 
But these lists are often at variance with the Annals, and the authorities above quoted prove 
that Maolmuadh succeeded — not Mahon in 976 — but Fergraidh in 959. 

^9 The following are extracts from the poem : — 

" Go, O Cogaran the intelligent, 

Unto Maolmuadh of the piercing blue ej'e, 
To the son of Bron of enduring prosperity. 
And to the sons of the Ui Eachach. 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 37 

facilitating the muster of their allies that Brian won his unbroken series 
of victories. The idea of a challenge to a pitched battle was, probably, 
suggested to the bard by the old heroic legends of Ireland in which such 
challenges are not unusual incidents. To prepare for the impending 
attack Maolmuadh made a large but by no means a complete muster of 
the race of Eoghan ; the fate of Donovan must have deterred some of the 
clans in Limerick and Tipperary, who might at any moment be easily 
invaded by Brian and his united Dalcassians. We learn from the old 
Irish chronicle quoted by Smith {History of Cork, new edition, p. 154), 
that, even though the Southern army was reinforced by a body of 
Danish allies or mercenaries, it was out-numbered by the army of Brian. 
At length the long expected battle was fought at Bealach Leachta,^° a mile 
east of Macroom, at the junction of the Sullane and the Lany.^^ "And 

" Say unto the son of Bron, that he fail not 
After a full fortnight from to-morrow, 
To come to Bealach Lechta hither, 
With the full muster of his army and his followers." 

— Wars of the Gael, p. 104. 
The bard, imperfectly acquainted with the topography of South Munster, evidently thought 
that Bealach Leachta was north of Rath Rathleann, Maolmuadh's residence. It will be observed 
that both by bards and annalists, "son of Bron" is used as a synonym for Maolmuadh. Hence 
Ross Mc Brin (Broin), which was the ancient name of a townland near Carrigtwohill (according 
to an Inquisition of the Barrymores), is a place name called after him as being one of his personal 
possessions. 

30 O'Dugan, a Connacht bard of the 14th century, in his Kings of the race of Heber, errone- 
ously assumed that this prehistoric Leacht was Maolmuadh's "monument," indicating the place 
of his burial. 

31 " A mile east of Macroom is a newly erected bridge over the Sullane, being there joined 
by the Lany a small distance from the bridge, whence running in a south-east course they enter 
the Lee. About three hundred yards north-west of the new bridge, in a meadow near the hank 
of the river, are three large stones set on edgewise to one another, the middle one being five feet 
broad, seven in height and two thick, but the others much smaller. About sixty yards south- 
east from the former is another stone set up, less than the middle one before mentioned, but 
larger than the side ones. These stones are said to have been erected in memory of a celebrated 
battle fought here between Brian Boru and the O'Mahonys of Carbery." — Smith's History 
of Cork, new edition, page 159. 

Two of the stones mentioned by Smith still exist ; the third has disappeared. The 
name Bealach Leachta signifies " The road of the monument," but the Leacht which 
gave a name to the adjoining road (from which contemporary annalists took the name of 
this battle) must have preceded the time of Brian and Maolmuadh, and was intended to 
commemorate some prehistoric combat. As Leachts were numerous in ancient Ireland, there 
were, as might be expected, other roads bearing the name of "Bealach Leachta." The 
compilers of the Dublin Annals of Innisfallen state that there were different opinions held as to 
the site of the battle. But there are two decisive considerations which authorise us to set aside 
all the localities they mention except Bealach Leachta, near Macroom. Nowhere else has there 
prevailed a constant tradition that a battle was fought in the vicinity by Brian and Maolmuadh. 
There was a ford at the battlefield — so states the author of Wars of the Gael, whose testimony 
as to such a circumstance there is no reason for rejecting. Now in none of the other localities 
named by the above-mentioned compilers is there a ford. Mr. Conor Murphy called attention 
to this circumstance in his ingenious artictle in the Cor/i Hist, and Arch, fournal, vol. iv., an 
article marred somewhat by his unbounded belief in all the statements of the Dalcassian chronicler. 

In a controversy that arose on this subject in 1893 (and was carried on in Vol. II. of this 



3$ THE o'mAHONYS OF KINEl.MEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Brian fought the battle of Bealach Leachta, in which fell Maolmuadh, son 
of Bron, King of Munster, and with him twelve hundred of the Gaels and 
and the foreigners" {Wars of the Gael, p. 109). The number of those who 
fell on Maolmuadh 's side may be supposed to have been exaggerated by 
the tribal historian, who says nothing about Brian's losses. The entry 
in the Annals of the Four Masters under the year 976 (the true date is 
978): "A battle between Brian, son of Kennedy, and Maolmuadh, Lord 
of Desmond, in which Maolmuadh fell, and there was a great slaughter 
of the men of Munster." The term "men of Munster" included both 
armies, ^^ and thus is confirmed the account of the ancient chronicle to 
which Smith had access, that "the battle was furiously fought on both 
sides." The record of the battle in the (original) Annals of Innis fallen, 
a far more ancient and accurate authority than the Four Masters, gives 
to Maolmuadh the title of King of Cashel, i.e. of Munster. Local tradi- 
tion informs us that Brian took up his position on the north bank of the 
Sullane, and Maolmuadh on the south bank; that the battle lasted the 
whole day, and that the rout of the retreating army was completed at 
Bearna Dearg (Red Gap), a place-name still preserved in the townland of 
Sleveen. During the last half century, large quantities of bones of men 
and horses have been dug up in the battle field, ghastly memorials of the 
combat. 

In the short account given of the battle by the author of the Wars of 
the Gael, no mention is made of the person by whom Maolmuadh was 
slain. "The narrative," says Dr. Todd (Introd. p. cxxxix.) "evidently 
implies that he was slain in a fair fight and not under any peculiar cir- 
cumstances. " But this did not satisfy the transcriber who interpolated the 
Wars of the Gael. After the account of the death of Mahon, he inserted 
into the text a forged metrical prophecy which he puts into the mouth 
"of a cleric." He then duly records the fulfilment of the same, i.e., 
that Maolmuadh "lost his eyes through the curse of the cleric"at the battle 
of Bealach Leachta, that he was "found in an alder hut at the ford," slain 
by "Aidh from the borders of Aifi," and buried on "the north side of a 
hill on which the sun never shines." To accept any one of those dis- 
paraging details from a partisan interpolator, the forger of a prophecy, 
would be a violation of the most fundamental duty of a historian. The 
interpolator, however, gives no support to the supposition that the slain 
king was buried on the battle field. The expression "on the north of a 
hill" (do cnuic) not "of the hill" — as erroneously translated — would be 
perfectly applicable to a burial place near Rath Rathleann, which was on 
the north side of a hill, as the writer might have heard, adding from his 

fournal), it was assumed by one of the disputants, and the assumption was admitted by the 
other, that Dr. O'Donovan, in Vol. II., Annals of Four Masters, in his notes on the entries 
under the years 974 and 976, held that the weight of evidence was against the Macroom site. 
This was a mistake. Dr. O'Donovan abstained from giving any decision on the point when 
writing the notes referred to. But both disputants were unaware that, when he came to write the 
sixth and last volume of his work, further research or consideration had convinced him that the 
tradition mentioned by Smith, and slill existing, indicated the true site of the battle, for he 
says (Appendix to Vol. VI., 2246,) without any hesitation or qualification, "Brian marched 
against the rival race of Eoghan, and came to an engagement with them at Bealach Leachta, in 
Muskerry, near Macroom." 

3" The language of those Annals would seem to imply that there were no Danes present. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKV AND IVAGHA. 39 

own imagination the circumstance that the grave was never illumined by 
the rays of the sun. Maolmuadh's residence was only ten miles distant, 
and it is not credible that one recognised as King of Munster was buried 
where he fell, and that his son, Cian (with whom Brian immediately made 
peace) did not cause him to be removed to the burial place of his ancestors, 
probably the Abbey of Kilbrennan, in the vicinity of Rath Rathleann. Such 
was the usage of the times, for, after the battle of Clontarf "thirty of the 
nobles who were killed were carried to their territorial churches wher- 
ever they were situated, all over Erin" (IVars 0/ the Gael, p. 211). Mr. 
Haverty in his History of Ireland, gravely records that "Maolmuadh was 
slain by Morrough, son of Brian, a youth of fifteen years." Dr. Todd 
shows that the statement is not supported by historical evidence. It may 
be added that such an exploit of Morrough would not have been left un- 
recorded by the author of the Wars of the Gael, who exhausts on him the 
language of panegyric, and that such a tradition was unknown to the inter- 
polator whose account has been already given. 

Brian was now supreme in Munster, and to secure his position, "took 
hostages even to the sea." But he was not dominated by vindictiveness ; 
he had the spirit of a statesman, and he wished to win to his side enemies 
over whom he gained a Pyrrhic victory. He made peace with Cian (pr. 
Kian) son of his late competitor, on terms that secured to himself reliable 
co-operation of great value in his subsequent campaigns. Remembering 
how the Eoghanacht clans, during the many centuries of their predomin- 
ance, while monopolizing the sovereignty of Munster, never interfered with 
the right of his ancestors to the Kingdom of Thomond (North Munster), 
he agreed that Cian should succeed to the dignities possessed by his late 
father, who, as we have seen, was "Chief of the Ui Eachach" and "Lord 
of Desmond. "^^ Moreover, he gave in marriage to the new chieftain his 
daughter, Sadhbh. Sadhbh (pr. Soyve) anglicised, or rather latinized 
"Sabia, " absurdly translated "Sarah," was the daughter of Brian by his 
first wife, Mor, whose father was the chief of Hy Fiachra in Galway, 
ancestor of O'Heyne. Murrough, Brian's eldest son, was fifteen years 
old at the Battle of Bealach Leachta, and his sister, married very soon after 
to Cian, must, of course, have been somewhat older. It is absurd, there- 
fore, to describe her as "the daughter of Brian's third wife, Gormflaith" 
(sister of the King of Leinster), as stated in that not very accurate pro- 
duction, ''The Lambeth Pedigree of the O'Mahonys," compiled by Sir 
George Carew. Brian could not have married Gormflaith before the year 
loog (see Annals Four Masters oin that year) : 

Cian, Son of Maolmuadh. 

In the traditions of the sept called after his son, Mahon, the memory 
of no other ancestor has been cherished in the same degree as that of 
"Cian na m-beann oir," "Cian of the golden cups." His prestige as 
having held high command at Clontarf, his boundless generosity, his tall 
stature and striking figure, as attested by tradition, contributed to make 
him the favourite hero of his descendants. The ancient topographical 
poems, already published in Part I. of this history, extol the intrepidity 
"of the chief who never turned his steps backwards in battle;" they dilate 

33 Dublin copy of Annals of Innisfalkn at year 979. 



40 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

on his profuse hospitality, and the state he kept up at Rathleann, where 
a bodyg-uard of three hundred horsemen came to him each morning, and 
an equal number of female attendants waited on Sadhbh in the Dun that 
bore her name. Mac Liag, Brian's chief bard and chronicler, expressed 
his admiration of Cian, not only in the poem on Rathleann, but also in the 
Eleg-y of Kincora, translated by Mangan, and in another Elegy on Brian, 
beginning with '"\:aX)A X)e^t gAn x^oibnex^r" (translated by Rev. W. H. 
Drummond, D.D.) from which the following is an extract: 

"Grief and despair my anxious bosom fill 

To hear my prince's (Brian's) joyous voice no more; 
Oh ! how unlike this journey drear and chill 

Was that to Cian in the days of yore. 
To Cian of the Carn — to Cian high 

In wealth and power, I went with boundless speed. 
With him could none but royal Brian vie 

In every generous thought and glorious deed." 

In Giolla Caomh's Elegy on Brian and his sons there are several 
stanzas on "Cian, the High Chief of the hosts from Carn Ui Neid. " But 
the highest eulogy of him was written by one who was not a Munster man, 
Mac Coise, the chief bard of Malachy, the contemporary King of Ireland. 
Mac Coise, who had witnessed the battle of Clontarf and afterwards became 
a monk at Clonmacnoise. Only one stanza has been preserved : 

" Inneof AT) ino ceifc ai[\. Cix\n, 
\X\ac triAOtrhuAiT) r\A n-eAc\\A n-'oiAn, 
C6 ctiA|\T)tii5eAf tiAjA Agtif coif 
til fACA A f^rhAil "oe fiot Git!)i|\." 
The purport of these lines is, that in all his experience he knew none like 
Cian of the race of Heber. On the contemporary evidence about Cian, in 
prose and verse, Mr. Hardiman in his Irish Minstrelsy, vol. ii., page 366, 
thus comments : "This prince bore a high character for wisdom and 
bravery. No one," says the historian, "seemed more worthy of the Crown of 
Munster or Monarchy of Ireland than Cian, and had fate so decreed it, 
to all appearance, Ireland would not have felt the calamity she so long 
endured. According to Mac Coise, chief chronicler of Ireland, who died, 
anno 1023, Cian was as gallant and generous a prince as the house of 
Heber ever produced."^* 

34 In the Journal oi 1896, p. 449, Canon Lyons, P.P., in his article on Rathleann, writes : — 
"An old man in my parish, with understanding and memory undimmed by 91 years, repeated 
to me a legend in connection with Cian. . . . Cian is still held in honour in the traditions 
of the district. His Rath is called "Cathair Cein Na mbeann oir" in a verse which I heard 
repeated from boyhood : — 

" Cacai^i Cein riA m-beAnn 6i|i 

tl0|1 flA A ton 'nA A fAOgAt 

nA|i cui|t AOinne ■ftiAiii o riA tij 
-Aj-uf riA^ ctii-fieA-6 a C15 ■oe." 

Translation. 
" The Fort of Cian of the golden cups 
Whose store outlasted his life, 
Who never put anyone out of his house, 
And who has not been put out of the house of God." 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 4 I 

Cian resided, usually, at Rath Raithleann, the seat of his ancestors since 
the time of Core, and often called after himself, "Rath Cein" and"Cathair 
C^in" (C^in genitive case). To the numerous ancient forts in its vicinity, 
provided for the chief's followers, he added two others which are named 
in one of the descriptive poems already quoted. The fact that a fort was 
bestowed on the chief harper and another on the trumpeter, doubtless with 
a retinue of attendants, shows the importance of those functionaries in the 
tenth century. 

He appears to have occasionally lived at Enniskean, which was called 
after him, as Sir R. Cox was informed by the Irish antiquaries of his time. 
There was a fort there, Dearg Rath (Red Fort) which gave its name to 
the townland on which was built the village of Enniskean. By the Four 
Masters, under year 1583, this place-name was misspelt 1nr)ifCA6in, the 
correct spelling, in Irish, of Inniskeen in Fermanagh. They sometimes mis- 
pelled southern names (Raithleann among the number), having a general re- 
semblance to northern names with which they were more familiar. Southern 
antiquaries were, of course, better authorities on the meaning and origin of 
our local place names. The Irish-speaking people of that district always 
pronounced the word as if written in English, "Inniskayn." Cian was the 
hero of many folk tales, and one of them, a very ancient one, has been pub- 
lished by Mr. Standish Hayes O'Gradyin his Silva Gadelica, from a MS. in 
the Egerton Collection, British Museum. In it we read : " ocuf "oo imtig 
CiAn 50 h-innif Cein, ocuf-oobi blM-OAin Ann," and Cian went to Inniscein 
(Kein) and was there a whole year," while his wound was healing. The 
passage confirms beyond question the traditional explanation of the name 
given to Cox in 1687.^^ 

For other folk tales about Cian, see last vol. Transactions Inverness 
Gaelic Svciety, 1907.^^ 

It has been conjectured that another of Cian's residences was in Lis- 
banree, a townland near Bandon that derived its name from an ancient 
fort, perhaps co called after Sabia, Cian's wife, though, of course, it is 
possible that the name existed in his father's time. 

The chief events of Cian's life, after the battle of Bealach Leachta, 
are recorded in the Leahhar Oiris, a copy of which is among the O'Reilly 
MSS. (R. I. Academy), from which the following excerpts are taken. The 
chronology differs somewhat from that of the Four Masters : 

The epithet of " the cups" must have reference to the fact recorded in the Book of Rights, 
that the King of Cashel was obliged to give yearly to the King of Rathleann ten drinking horns 
while the latter was exempt from tribute to Cashel. In the poems (already quoted) the place 
is called "Rath na geuach, of the cups." This conjecture is erroneous, for the epithet was 
peculiar to Cian. The quotation from the Book of Rights is correct. 

35 See Cox's Regnum Conagiense and Carberia Notitia. See also Smith's History of Cork, 
p. 14 (new edition) 

36 The name "Cian" (genitive case, C^in) had been previously borne by one of his 
ancestors, the father of Bron, and by Cian, third son of Olioll Olum, and ancestor of the tribes 
called the " Cianachta." In the mythical stories we find it as the name of the father of the god 
Lugh. It is curious that the name should also be found in the Cymric branch of the Celtic. 
See, in Gray's translation of the Welsh poem, " The Death of Hoel," the lines :— 

" By them, my friend, my Hoel, died, 
Great Clan's son," etc. 



42 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

A.D. 979. War was made by Donal, son of Faelan, chief of the Deisi, 
and by lomhar (Danish) chief of Portlairge against Brian and Cian, son 
of Maolmuadh, Brian obtained hostages and the Headship of Munster. 
(The battle in which the final victory was gained is not named by this 
chronicler, but is called the battle of Fan Conradh in the Dublin copy of 
the Annals of Innisf alien, which states that a naval expedition of the Ui 
Eachach assisted in this campaign). 

A.D. 982. A hosting of the men of Munster under Brian and Cian to 
Ossory, Success of the hosting and submission of the two Leinster kings 
to Brian. 

A.D. 999 [F.M. 998], a hosting by Brian and Cian to Glenmama, and 
the foreigners of Atha Cliath were defeated, etc. The victory of Glen- 
mama (a valley near Dunlavan, County Wicklow), is now regarded as 
the most complete of the victories gained by the Irish over the Danes, as 
they took and destroyed the Danish fort of Dublin— which could not be 
attempted at Clontarf. It is celebrated by a poem inserted in the Wars of 
the Gael as greater than that of Moynealta, the name of the plain of which 
Clontarf is part. In some excavations made in that glen in 1864, one of 
the pits of the slain was discovered, containing human remains and a 
Danish sword. 

A.D. 1002. A hosting of Brian and Cian to Athlone, and Brian 
obtained the hostages of Connaught. The date in the Annals of the Four 
Masters is looi, and under the same year they mention another incursion 
to Magh Murthemne, near Dundalk, in which the Leabhar Oiris (though 
assigning a later date) asserts that Cian was present. Brian in a.d. 1002, 
according to the Annals of Ulster, became King of Ireland, and from this 
date we find no evidence that Cian personally took part in any subsequent 
campaign until the battle of Clontarf. But the men of the maritime 
portion of his sept land "and such other men of Eire as were fit to go to 
sea" (Wars of the Gael, p. 137) aided Brian in the naval expedition he 
organised against parts of England and Scotland, and Brian, we are told, 
"gave one-third of the tribute thus acquired to the warriors of Leinster 
and of the Ui Eachach Mumhan. Dr. Todd, who had cast some doubt on 
this expedition in his note on the above passage of the Wars of the Gael, 
altered his view when writing his Introduction to that work, and admitted 
the probability that such an event took place. In the comparatively 
peaceful period that followed until a.d. 1014, Cian appears to have been 
a frequent visitor to Brian's palace, as may be inferred from Mac Liag's 
"Lament," in which he apostrophises Kincora : "Where, O Kincora, is 
Brian, and Murrough and Conaing and Cian, the son of Maolmuadh?" 

A description of the battle of Clontarf belongs to the general history 
of Ireland. In these pages we shall give only some excerpts showing the 
part taken in that memorable battle by Cian, and his clan and other fol- 
lowers. 

In describing the preparations for the battle of Clontarf, all the- 
ancient authorities agree in stating that there was a complete muster oi 
the Clans of the race of Eoghan Mor, and of the other clans of South 
Munster. When enumerating those clans, our principal modern historians, 
following, as we shall show, the most trustworthy evidence available, 
commence with the Ui Eachach Mumhan, as admittedly the predominant 
power in South Munster. The following account is from Moore's History 



THE o'MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 43 

of Ireland, vol. ii. : — "The division whose task it was to oppose the 
second of the enemy's corps was commanded by Cian and Donald, both 
princes of the Eugenian line, and* of whom the former is said byl the 
Annalists to have exceeded in stature and beauty all other Irishmen. 
Under these Chiefs were ranged, in addition to the warriors of their own 
gallant tribe [the Ui Eachach], the forces of the King of the Decies, and 
all the other septs and principalities of the South of Ireland." And in a 
note: "Cian was the Chief of the Eugenians of Cashel [Munster], and 
son-in-law to Brian. There remain some elegies on this warrior's death." 

Haverty {History of Ireland, chap, xiv.) defines the position of the 
South Munster forces without determining to whom they were opposed : — 
"Brian's central division comprised the troops of Desmond (South 
Munster), under the command of Cian, son of Molloy (ancestor of 
O'Mahony), and Donnell, son of Duvdavoren (ancestor of O'Donoghue), 
both of the Eugenian line ; together with the other septs of the South, 
under their respective chiefs, viz. : Mothla, son of Faelan, king of the 
Decies ; Muirkertach, son of Anmcha, chief of Hy-Liathain (a territory 
in Cork); Scannlan, son of Cathal, chief of Loch Lein, or Killarney ; 
Loingseach, son of Dunlaing, chief of the territory of Hy Conall-Gavra, 
comprised in the present baronies of Upper and Lower Connello, in the 
County of Limerick; Cathal, son of Donovan, chief of Carbry-Eva (Kenry, 
in the same county) ; Mac Beatha, chief of Kerry Luachra ; Geivennach, 
son of Dugan, chief of Fermoy : O'Carroll, king of Eile ; and according 
to some accounts, O'Carroll, king of Oriel, in Ulster." 

Dr. O 'Donovan draws the same conclusion as Moore, from the MSS. 
authorities, in his Appendix to the Annals of the Four Masters, vol. vi., 
where, in his account of Cathal, son of Donovan, ancestor of the 
O 'Donovans, he says : "He was placed in the second division of Brian's 
forces, of which Kian, ancestor of the O'Mahonys, had the chief com- 
mand, and this division contended with the forces of Leinster. " 

These historians justly disregarded the account given of the disposition 
of the Munster forces, and of their commanders, by the deeply-prejudiced 
writer of the Wars of the Gael, who could not bear to mention the name 
of the Eoganacht tribes at all, in the arrangements for the battle. That 
the ruling race in South Munster, from whom the kings of Munster were 
selected for many centuries, accepted as their leader Mothla, the chief 
of the comparatively obscure tribe of the Deisi, is intrinsically incredible. 
Towards the end of this book the writer shows that he was well aware of 
Cian's position in Munster affairs, and that he was the only rival of Donogh 
for the provincial throne. He cannot, therefore, have believed his own 
statement as to the leadership of the forces of Desmond. Only one 
modern writer, the author of a school history, has been so uncritical 
as to follow him as an authority on this point. 

The authorities followed by the writers above quoted were the Dublin 
Annals of Innis fallen, and the MS. known as "The Cath Chluana Tarbh," 
a Munster tract that had been used by Keating. They were not acquainted 
with the^^ "Leabhar Oiris," and did not know that the former of these 

37The Cath Chluana Tarbh is in the shape of a narrative, based mainly on the 
Leabhar Oiris, but deriving some few details from some other sources. The lattei 
work is the form of Annals. The accuracy with which it records an eclipse of the 
sun in 1023 tells in favour of the antiquity and credibility of its entries; if that event 



44 THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

authorities just mentioned was largely compiled from that record. The 
Leabhar Oiris has been traditionally ascribed to Mac Liag, who was both 
bard and chronicler, and though the language has been, by frequent 
transcription, modernized into the Irish ot the sixteenth century, yet it 
preserves (as also does the "Cath-Chluana Tarbh") some grammatical 
forms and peculiar idioms that indicate an ancient origin. The following 
is an extract from an entry in this book, for a.d. 1014, recording the 
muster of the Southern tribes : — C^AX^ Yf\AC T()AO\lmuA^X)h 50 triAitit) 
"Oe^r^HifhAn Agiir r^exxCcA eogAin ttloip, Aguf "Oorhnx^t tTlAc 'Out)-ox\t)Oit\- 
e^nn, Hi Cinel tx3.05xMf\e, x^suf ITIochlA m^c yAolAW tli nA-n-'Oeifi, ic. -|C. . 
"Cian, son of Maolmuadh, over the nobles of Desmond and tribes of 
Eoghan Mor, and Donal, son of Dubdavoren, Chief of Cinel Laeghere,^^ 
and Mothla, Chief of the Deisi," &c., &c. Further on, it mentions 
among the assembled warriors, O 'Carroll of Oriel, and Maguire of Fer- 
managh, whose names do not appear in any other chronicle. To these it 
attributes a resolution to afford an example of fraternal union between 
northern and southern Gaels — a sentiment rarely felt in that period of 
disunited tribes and local partisanship: — "Of finnpeinctii'oeACcxMfpAi'oe 
X)AX) tu-Ai-o ^nnf o -o' 6ifinn fxiCAm-Aoi'o 1 gCAt Cein ttlic ltlAOilrhUAi'6, 6 if e 
If rxM-oe bA-o -oeAf "o' eifinn." They said: "As we are from the farthest 
north part of Ireland, let us join the battalion of Cian Mac Maolmuaidh, 
as he is from the extreme south of Ireland." This national sentiment 
disappears in Dr. Charles O'Connor's Latin translation: — "Debemus ire 
in caterva Cenii, Filii Maolmuadii, quoniam is est altissimus et pulcherri- 
mus Hibernorum — 'the tallest and handsomest of Irishmen.'" This 
version, so opposed to grammar and idiom, was perhaps suggested to the 

was noticed and recorded by a contemporary so, presumably at least, were the historical 
events that are mentioned on its authority in these pages. This is a circumstance regarding this 
book, which, as far as the present writer knows, has not been observed hitherto. That the entry 
was correct can be seen by referring to the "Art de verifier les dates," (Tome i., p. 71), 
whose authors, two French Benedictines, had the original idea of calculating astronomi- 
cally the past eclipses of the sun that must have occurred in the historic periods 
specifying when visible in western Europe, and thus affording a means of sometimes 
checking the accuracy of historians. From a note in page 778, vol. ii. "Annals Foul 
Masters," it is plain that this \Vork was unknown to the editor. He was not aware 
that it was on its authority that certain western and northern Chiefs were said to be 
present at the battle. As regards the northern Chiefs of Oriel and Fermanagh, its 
statement is to some extent corroborated by one MS. of the "Wars of the Gael," which 
says (p. 155) that Brian received support from "beccan cuigeadh Uladh," a small portion 
of Ulster, besides Meath. 

As there are entries in the Leabhar Oiris as late as 1028, it cannot all have been 
compiled by Mac Liag, who died in 1016. It has been published in "Eiriu" in 
1904, after a careful collation of MSS. by Mr. R. L Best. 

3 8This was Donal's correct designation. In the Cath Chluana Tarbh, or rather 
some MSS. of it, after "Chief of the Cinel Laeghere," as in the Leabhar Oiris, there 
is added "Chief of* the Ui Eachach," but this is plainly an interpolation, for the 
original writer placed Cian's name first, signifying his headship of the tribe, and 
could not consistently call another, placed after him, Chief of the Ui Eachach. This, 
however, misled Dr. O'Donovan, who did not know of the Leabhar Oiris. In his Notes 
to O'Heerin, he speaks of Donal "who was killed at Clontarf, and was King of 
Desmond." Donal was neither killed at Clontarf nor King of Desmond. 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. ^ 45 

translator by the Bardic eulogies of Cian's physical and other perfections. 
It has been accepted and quoted by many writers, Moore, Haverty, 
O'Callaghan {Hist. Irish Brigade), without the least- suspicion of its in- 
accuracy, which is now brought to light for the first time. 

All the Irish accounts agree that the army of Brian advanced to the 
battlefield in three divisions against the enemy arranged in a similar forma- 
tion. According to the Leabhar Oiris, the Dalcassian battalion, opposed 
to the mail-clad Norsemen, was under the command of Murrough, son of 
Brian ; the second battalion, opposed to the Leinster men and one Danish 
squadron, was under the command of Cian, son of Maolmuadh ; and the 
third battalion, composed of the Connacht tribes, was under Tadhg 
O'Connor of Connacht and O'Kelly of Ui Maine, and opposed to the 
Danes of Dublin. In the Celtic military system, allied tribes, and those 
from the same province, were grouped together, and each tribe formed a 
distinct column separated by a marked mterval from the others. This 
peculiar formation lasted as long as the Clan system from whose exigen- 
cies it arose. ^^ 

In some recent dissertations on the battle, it has been maintained that 
Turlough, son of Murrough, was in command of one of the three bat- 
talions. This statement will not bear investigation. Turlough was then 
only fifteen years old, according to the Annals of Clonmacnoise and the 
Leabhar Oiris, and this assertion is in accordance with Brian's age as 
determined by the date of his birth, given in the Annals of Ulster (a.d. 
941), and in accordance also with the numerous passages of the Wars of 
the Gael, which describe Murrough as in the prime of life and in the fulness 
of his strength. Moreover, the latter work expressly says that the youth- 
ful hero, Turlough, was placed, where we would expect one of his years 
to be, "along with (air oen ris, at one place with) his father, Murrough." 

The question — whether the Norse Sagas confirm and supplement the 
Irish accounts of the battle — has, in recent times, been minutely investi- 
gated. That there should be a considerable discrepancy as to details is 
what might be expected from the fact that the two sources were by no 
means contemporaneous, the Sagas having been compiled at least a 
century later than the Irish chronicles. On the other hand, it might 
reasonably be supposed that some circumstances, not noticed by the 
Irish writers, may have been impressed on the memory of the "Foreigners 
of Dublin," and from them may have come to the knowledge of the 
compilers of the Scandinavian accounts. In the Njal Saga we are told 
that Brodir and Sitric of Dublin commanded the wings and Earl Sigurd 
the centre of the Danish army. It confirms the Irish account that the 
Irish army had been formed into three divisions. The commander of the 
wing opposed to Brodir is named Ulf Hroda, the commander of the 
centre Kerthialfad, and the commander of the other wing (opposed to 
vSitric), Ospak. The first of these leaders is described as a brother of 

39It was exhibited, almost for the last time, at Killiecrankie in 1689 : — "It was 
desirable to keep the clans distinct. Each tribe, large or small, formed a column 
separated from the next column by a wide interval. One of these battalions might 
contain seven hundred men, while another consisted of only one hundred and twenty. 
Lochiel had represented that it was impossible to mix men of different tribes without 
destroying all that constituted the peculiar strength of a Highland army."— Macaulay 
(Hist. England). 



46 THE o'mahonys of kinelmekv and ivagha. 

Brian, the second is the son of another Irish King, and the third is a Norse 
auxihary of the Irish. Now, the statement of the Irish chronicles (i) that 
Murchadh (Murroug-h), son of Brian, was commander of the battalion 
opposed to Broder, and {2) that the other battalions were under chiefs 
who were not blood relations of the King, is thereby substantially con- 
firmed. The substitution of "brother of Brian" for "son of Brian" 
is just what might be expected to happen as the result of transmission by 
oral tradition, and that point of difference does not affect the impression 
produced on the reader, that the two accounts, so far, correspond. How 
the name Murchad came to be represented by Ulf Hroda is a question 
more curious than important. The name as it stands is Norse, and has 
been interpreted by Dr. Dasent "Wolf the quarrelsome." Such an un- 
complimentary soubriquet may have been suggested by the account which 
Maolmordha, King of Leinster, gave to his Danish allies about the provo- 
cation he received from Murrough at Kincora ; the soubriquet, as has 
often happened, may have supplanted the real name among the foreigners. 
"It is not easy," says Dr. Todd (Introd. Wars of the Gael, c. ixxv.), 
"to identify . . . Kerthialfad with any of the chieftains on Brian's side 
known in Irish history." Who was Kerthialfad? Mr. J. H. Lloyd, in 
a learned and elaborate article in the New Ireland Review (Sept. and 
Oct., 1907), has sought to identify him with Turlough. This view may be 
summarily set aside, for the youthful Turlough was not a "commander" 
of any of the three battalions of the Irish army, as has been already 
proved. "Kerthialfad," says the Njal Saga, "was the son of King Kylfi, 
who had many wars with King Brian, and fled away out of the land 
before him, and became a hermit; but when King Brian went south on 
a pilgrimage, then he met King Kylfi, and then they were atoned, and 
King Brian took his son, Kerthialfad, to him, and loved him more than 
his own son. He was then full grown when these things happened, and 
was the boldest of all men." Now, Cian was (i) a commander of one 
of the three divisions of the army, {2) was the son of a King (Maolmuadh), 
(3) who had been at war with Brian, (4) and was defeated at Bealach 
Leachta, and (5) whose son was reconciled to Brian "in the South," and (6) 
became Brian's son-in-law, and (7) his valour has been amply attested by 
Mac Coise,'*" Malachy's chronicler, who was present at Clontarf, and by 
Mac Liag.^'^ The points of resemblance between the Cian of history and 
the "Kerthialfad" of Norse tradition are numerous and striking; they are 
certainly not overborne by the inevitable points of difference. The men- 
tion of the "South" in connection with the origin of the commander 
named in the Saga is specially significant. It cannot, of course, be 
asserted absolutely that there is a resemblance between Cian Mac 
Maolmuadh (the full name) and Kerthialfad, though both begin with a K 
sound, and the last syllables of each, "alfad" and "aolmhuad" (with m 
aspirated) are not unlike. But, as has been said in the case of Ulf 
Hroda, the name may have been originally a Norse appellation for an 
Irish opponent, intelligible at first, but altered by corruption into its 
present form in the Saga. It may be objected that the Norse-named chief 
cuts his way towards Earl Sigurd, and kills his standard-bearer, whereas 
Cian's battalion was opposed to the Leinster men, and to a Danish squad- 
ron not cdmmanded' by Sigurd. The obvious answer is, that the Irish 

^^Supra, p. 40. 4iSupra, p. 40. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 47 

chronicles define the position of the battalions on both sides only at the 
commencement of the battle, and those that were widely separated in the 
morning might be, and doubtless were, brought into collision in the 
course of the day. 

After the dearly-purchased victory was won, not surviving chief was 
entitled to command, and accordingly, the Leabhar Oiris tells us, "it was 
the advice of Cian, son of Maolmuadh, and Tadhg, son of Brian, to bring 
all the wounded to Kilmainham, and to encamp there for that night." 
Next day, they, doubtless, occupied themselves in the burial of the slain, 
while awaiting the coming of Donogh, son of Brian, who returned towards 
evening, bringing from the spoliation of the Danish and Irish territories 
(a task assigned to him the day before the battle) much-needed supplies foi 
the victorious army. On the following day, the men of Munster commenced 
their homeward march, in one body, and in the evening reached Mullagh- 
mast, in the present County of Kildare, five miles east of Athy and about 
twenty-four miles from Kilmainham. There they separated into two camps. 
On the summit of a mound (Mullach) stood the historic Rath of Mullaghmast, 
one of the royal residences of Leinster, but then left unoccupied. Donogh 
took possession of the Rath as a camping ground, influenced probably 
by an apprehension of an event that came to pass next morning. "Donogh, 
son of Brian, and Tadhg, son of Brian, had a separate camp in the Rath 
of Mullachmaisteam for the survivors of the Dalcais, and Cian had 
another camp with the tribes of the race of Eoghan Mor" (L. O.). That 
encampment was a turning point in the history of the Ui Eachach Mumhan. 

Cian had never reconciled himself to the subordinate position that he 
was obliged to hold during the time of Brian's predominance. Now at 
length the opportunity appeared to him to have arrived for recovering 
the hostages which the prudent Brian did nott fail to exact from him, son- 
in-law though he was, and associate in so many battles. The restitution 
of the hostages would restore his independence, but he hoped, moreover, 
to extort from the present necessities of Brian's sons a recognition of his 
own claim to the sovereignty of Munster. As the Dalcassians marched 
to their separate camp that evening, their greatly diminished numerical 
strength was obvious to the spectators. Their heroic leader, Murchadh, 
had claimed the right of leading them against the mail-clad Norsemen, 
and though the battle-axe had triumphed over the coat of mail, the ranks 
of the Dalcassians had been wofully thinned. That the men of Desmond 
suffered very much less was due to the circumstance that their opponents 
at Clontarf were less perfectly equipped; nevertheless a large proportion 
of their valiant chieftains were slain (Wars of the Gael, p. 171). The 
disparity of numbers between Eoganacht and Dalcais was probably not 
exaggerated by the author of the Leabhar Oiris when he wrote : "Donogh 
had but one thousand men, and Cian had three thousand." 

Resolving to lose no time in availing himself of the present opportunity, 
Cian, we are told (L. O. n. 43), "at the break of day sent a messenger to the 
sons of Brian, conveying his formal demand for a restoration of his host- 
ages, and for a recognition of him as King of Munster. He based his 
claim on the seniority of the line of Eoghan Mor^^— "t)^ -pine ©ojAn Tilof r\A 
Co^ymAcCAf" — assuming — what was undoubtedly true — that among those 

42As has been observed in a previous page, he does not base his claim on any 
"right to alternate sovereigiity ; " he ignores the existence of that alleged law of succession. 



4$ THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

of his own line he had no competitor for the position. Donogh replied, 
"that as regards the hostages, Brian had obtained the sovereignty by 
force from Cian's father and from himself," and that he would maintain 
what his father, Brian, had done, and "would not give Cian the sove- 
reignty, if he (Donogh) had the full strength of his army." In short, 
Donogh yielded to necessity. At this stage of the proceedings, Donal, 
son of Dubdavoren, the head of the Cinel Laeghere branch of the Ui 
Eachach tribe, being informed of what was going on, and perceiving that 
Donogh was consenting to grant Cian's demand for hostages, asked Cian 
"What advantage will it be for me that the Dalcais should hand you 
over the sovereignty?" Cian replied that he did not propose to give 
Donal any share beyond what he had already, his patrimony (F^inacas 
F6m, his legal right) in the Ui Eachach tribe-land. "In that case," re- 
plied Donal, "I will take no part in exacting hostages and sovereignty 
for you." "You will come by compulsion even from your own house to 
do so," said Cian. "We will wait for the compulsion," was Donal's 
reply, and he ordered the Cinel Laeghere to detach themselves from Cian's 
forces. 

Donogh observing the evidence of hopeless dissension between the two 
leaders of the rival race of Eoghan, marched off with his followers to 
Athy, where in refusing Mac Giolla Padraig's demand for hostages, he 
said that "It was no wonder that Cian Mac Maolmuadh, considering the 
size of his army, should ask for hostages, but it was a wonder that such 
a demand should come from a chief of the Osraighe" (Leabhar Oiris). 

The account above given of the events that occurred at Mullaghmast, 
is taken almost verbatim from the Leabhar Oiris and the Cath Chluana 
Tarbh. These compilations are of Dalcassian origin ; their authors show 
themselves to be ardent admirers of Brian and of his sons, Murchadh 
and Donogh. But they exhibit no prejudice against the South Munster 
Chieftains, and their account bears the impress of impartiality. Very 
different is the narrative of the author of the Wars of the Gael. From a 
reluctance to mention Cian's name he says, "that the men of Desmond 
agreed to send a message demanding hostages from the sons of Brian." 
This is an absurd statement, for the hostages would not, of course, be 
given to the men of "Desmond" in general, but to the chief who claimed 
them as an appanage and security of provincial sovereignty. Moreover, 
there was no such consultation and agreement among the "men of 
Desmond," as is plain from his own subsequent account of the views of 
Donal Mac Duvdavoren. The writer puts into the mouths of the "men of 
Desmond" his own favourite theory of the "alternate sovereignty." 
He asserts that Donogh stoutly refused their demand, a manifest im- 
probability, seeing that there must have been a very great disparity of 
forces, and he gives, in this connection, a replica of the incident of the 
wounded insisting on being placed in battle array, an incident which 
occurred in the encounter with the comparatively small force of Mac Giolla 
Padraig, Chief of Ossory. The "men of the South" are, of course, 
terrified at this display of bravery by the wounded, and shrink from battle. 
Finally, he finds it impossible to narrate the dissension that occurred 
among the men of the South without telling of the dispute between Cian 
and Donal, and from this we discover that he was well aware that not 
"the men of Desmond," but Cian, made the demand on Donogh for 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 49 

hostag-es. This writer is truly described by Dr. Todd as "full of the 
feelings of clanship and of the partisanship of the time" (Introd., p. ccl.). 
Such an author's narrative could not, therefore, be adopted in preference 
to that which has been above given from a less prejudiced Dalcassian 
authority. '''"When Cian saw Uonal, and he red in the face, and with 
every sign of anger and fury, drawing off his fullowcrs, the Cinel Laeghere, 
he came and announced to him to be prepared for battle." Donal accepted 
the challenge, and they agreed that their troops should proceed home- 
wards together ("side by side"), and should not commence hostilities 
until they arrived within the Ui Eachach territory at the plain of Magh 
Guilidhe. The revolt against his authority within his own tribe dispelled 
from Cian's mind for the time being the ambitious design he had formed. 
It is plain from the record that we are following, that Donal had not 
"laid claim to the sovereignty of Munster," as Haverty (Hist, of Ireland, 
chap, xiv.) erroneously asserts. And it would seem that he would have 
acquiesced in Cian's possessing the hostages, if an equitable share of 
the tributes and other acquisitions expected from the overthrow of Brian's 
power in Munster had been promised him. The stipulation would not 
seem an unreasonable one for a powerful chief, the son of a former king 
of Munster (died a.d. 957) to put forward. But from Cian's point of 
view, any such partitioning would be tantamount to breaking up the 
unity of the ancient sovereignty of Munster. At all events, the dissensions 
of that Easter Monday morning-, a.d. 1014, disrupted for ever the unity 
of the Ui Eachach tribe, which had now lasted for over four centuries, 
free from intestinal feuds. The Cinel Aedha and the Cinel Laeghere 
never again met in peace and amity. They proceeded to the plain of 
Magh Guilidhe, which constant tradition has identified with the townland 
of Maglin, near Ballincollig. There the fratricidal strife commenced. 
There is no definite statement as to which party won the victory, but 
in all the Annals, Innisfallen, Ulster, Clonmacnoise,*^ Four Masters, 
there is an entry commencing "A battle between the Ui Eachach them- 
selves," and recording the death of Cian and his brothers, Cahal and 
Raghallach. The death of a leader — as the example of Clontarf and other 
Irish battles shows — by no means implies the defeat of his followers. 
The Leabhar Oiris in stating that Cian and his brothers, Cathal and 
Raghallach, •^'^ fell, adds "amidst a great slaughter of the men of the 
South of Ireland." From the latter expression we would infer that other 
allied tribes in the South took part in the contest, that both parties 
suffered severely, and that there was no decisive victory. The same com- 
piler proceeds to inform us that "Immediately on hearing of the death, 
of Cian, Donogh, son and successor of Brian, came down to the South, 
united his forces with those of Mahon, son of Cian, and gave battle to 
Donal, whose son, Cahal, was slain. According to the Annals of the 
Four Masters, Donal gave hostages. The following year another battle 

43Leabhar Oiris. 4* Smith, History of Cork," book iv., chap. x. _ 

45The "Annals of the Four Masters" misplace this entry. See editor's note about 
their error on A.T). 1013. 

46The name of Raghallach (gen. Raghallaigh) son of Maolmuadh, is embodied 
in "Inchirahilly," the name of a townland adjoining Dun Draighnean, which, as 
we have seen, was one of Cian's forts. That the name should have been preserved so long 
is not surprising, when we consider that the analogous name Inniscein (Enniskean) 
called after Cian, and Rath Culleen, called after Cian's harper, have survived for 
the same length of time. The name of Dun Draighnean (now Castlemore) is only 
partially preserved in "Carrig an Duna," the name still given to the rocky mound 
on which the castle stands. 



50 THE o'mAHONVS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

took place, which the Leabhar Oiris records as follows: — "A.D. 1015, a 
hosting- by Donogh, son of Brian, and Mahon, son of Cian, and Donal, 
son of Dubhdavoren, was killed by Mahon in revenge for his father." 
Donal would seem to have been assisted by the Chief of O'Liathain, 
whose "death by Mahon" is immediately after recorded. According to 
the usage of Annals, "to be killed" by a chieftain or king does not mean 
killed by him personally, but by his soldiers in battle."^^ 

The compilers of the (Dublin) Annals of Innisfallen, who made copious 
use of the Leabhar Oiris, deliberately inverted the foregoing entry, and 
set it down as follows : "A.D. 1015, a hosting by Donogh, &c., and Mahon 
fell hy Donal/' Dr. O'Brien, one of the two compilers, repeats this 
statement, or misstatement, in the Essay on Tanistry, already quoted (in foot 
note, p. i), published in Vallancey '5 Collectanea, vol. i. It is no wonder that 
Dr. O 'Donovan frequently censured this author's mode of manufacturing 
history. There is a discrepancy between the entry we have given from 
the Leabhar Oiris and that in the Annals of the Four Masters and 
Chronicon Scotorum about the above-mentioned battle. According to 
those Annals, "Donal led an army to Limerick, and there was met by 
Donogh and Tadhg, defeated and slain." Now (i) as Donal already 
"gave hostages," it is incredible that he would commence hostilities as 
described ; (2) by an expedition to Limerick he would leave his tribe-land 
to be devastated by his hostile kinsmen of the Cinel Aedha, and it is 
extremely improbable that he would be guilty of such imprudence. More- 
over, we do not know where lived the original author of the entry that 
those Annalists embodied in their works ; but we do know that the 
Leabhar Oiris was written by a Munster man, and one who followed with 
special interest the history of the Ui Eachach. Cahal, son of Donal, 
whose death is recorded above, was a young man of great promise, who 
had, the year before Clontarf, defeated a Danish expedition that had 
attacked and burned Cork [Annals Four Masters). After the death of 
his father, Donchadh (genitive case, Donchada), the second son of Donal, 
became Chief of the Cinel Laeghere, who from him derived, about the 
end of the century, the hereditary surname of O 'Donchada (O'Donoghue). 
It may be regarded as certain that under this chieftain took place the migra- 

■*7In not a few instances the Annalists, in recording the death of a King or Chief, 
ascribe it to his violation of the rights of a church or monastery. To account for 
the death of so powerful a chief as Cian, a legend grew up, or rather a story was 
invented, that as he was passing by Kinneigh on the day before the battle of Magh 
Guilidhe, his soldiers took some of the provisions that were being carried to worki&en 
engaged on St. Mocholmog' Church and Round Tower, and that Cian did not apologise 
for this, whereas Donal, who passed by about the same time, apologised for the action 
of his men who did the same as Cian's. The inventor of the story thought that 
Kinneigh was somewhere on the line of march from MuUaghmast to Magh Guilidhe ; 
or if he knew its position, he did not perceive that he was inventing a motiveless 
journey for the two way-worn battalions twenty miles on to Kinneigh and back again 
next day to the selected battle-field that they had passed by. , Had St. Mocholmog 
met the two chiefs, that good man would have tried to prevent bloodshed instead of 
uttering for a trivial matter the imprecation that a sanguinary shanachie invented and 
attributed to him. The story got attached to the end of the "Cath Chluana Tarbh," 
the Irish MS. from which Smith (Hist, of Cork) gives it, quoting the MS. very in- 
correctly, and stating erroneously that Donal was "married to a daughter of Brian." 
He confuses Cian's contest with Donal, and Cian's contention with Donogh, son of 
Brian, as given in the Irish MS. 

The tower of Kinneigh, in Cian's tribe land, and near Enniskean, which has been shown 
to be one of his residences (page 114, supra) must have been built by his assistance. 
That was, in substance, the local tradition. "The tradition is," says Canon Lyons in his 
account of Kinneigh, "that the Round Tower was built by the O'Mahonys after the 
battle of Clontarf. This agrees with the facts of history ; these towers were built in 
large numbers in Brian's time, &c." (Cork Hist. & Arch. Journal, vol. ii., A.D. 1893). 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 5 1 

tlon of the Cincl Lacg^here to Magunihy, in Kerry, where they displaced the 
ancient branch of O'Carroll of the "Eoghanacta Locha Lein," and gave to 
that territory the name of Eoghanacht Ui-Donoghue. No record giving the 
exact date of their migration has hitherto been found, but it may be assumed 
that they would not take the resolution of abandoning the fertile tribe-land 
that their ancestors held, for an unknown and less promising region, 
except under pressure of some great disasters, such as those already 
mentioned in the year a.d. 1015. Now, neither in the Leabhar Oiris, 
whose entries may be said to terminate with the record of the death of 
Mahon, son of Cian, nor in the original Annals 'of Innis fallen, though 
these have entries about the son and grandson of Mahon, nor in any 
other Annals is there a reference to a subsequent conflict, in the course 
of the eleventh century, between the Cinel Laeghere and their former 
fellow-tribesmen of the Cinel Aedha. Had it taken place it would have 
been recorded, as well as the previous conflict of Magh Guilidhe in a.d. 
1014. Under the date 1049, in the (original) Annals of Innisfallen, we 
find that "the Finnsuileach" O'Donoghue, "Chief of Ui Eachach," was 
at war with the people of Corcaguiney, a district west otf Magunihy, 
and was slain by them. The contest was continued by his successor, 
Loingseach, "grandson of Donal," his predecessor's brother or cousin, 
and he too was slain. We may fairly infer from this that the tribe had 
already migrated to the western part of Magunihy, and was endeavouring 
to extend their new territory into the land of O'Falvey. Cahal, the 
father of Finnsuileach above mentioned, is described in the record of his 
death as "Lord of Ui Eachach, that is, of Rathleann." But the Four 
Masters took this entry from the Annalist of Innisfallen, who had given, 
as local compilers not unfrequently did, a merely complimentary designa- 
tion to the local chief. To give to Cahal a designation taken from the 
old tribe-land now irrecoverably lost to him was to give him an empty title 
indeed. The original possessors of Magunihy, the O'Carrolls, were not 
completely displaced, all at once, by the invaders, but continued to live on, 
for some time, in a part of their possessions. * There are three entries 
about their chiefs, each called "Ri Eoganachta Locha Lein," in the 
Annals of the Four Masters, but after 1108 they disappeared from history, 
and their time-honoured designation was transferred to the O'Donoghue 
Chiefs, one of whom — another "Finnsuileach" — is called "Ri Locha 
Lein" in the Annals of Innisfallen, a.d. iiio. The Clan O'Donoghue 
displayed during the entire course of its history an undeviating attach- 
ment to the cause of Celtic independence. The last O'Donoghue Mor 
joined the Desmond insurrection; he fell in battle in 1582, and his Sept- 
land was given by Elizabeth to Mac Carthy Mor. His memory, or 
rather his name, still lives in the well-known legends of Killarney. The 
junior branch, the O'Donoghues of Glenflesk, succeeded in maintaining 
their tribal existence, within their fastnesses, for many years after all 
other Munster tribes were extinguished.^^ Between them and a branch 

48The O'Donoghues of Kerry are of a distinct race from the O'Donoghues of Leinster 
(now Dunphys) and the O'Donoghues of Eoganacht Cashel, i.e. of the barony of Iffa 
and Offa, County Tipperary. They have been confounded with the latter tribe even 
by Dr. O'Donovan in his 'notes to O'Heerin. There are five or six entries in the 
"Annals" about the tribe of Eoganacht Cashel, in the eleventh century. The first of 
these entries is in 1014, "Dungal O'Donoghue." The name implies a grandfather, 
named Donchadh, who must have been born a hundred years before, and was therefore 
not Donchad, the son of Donal Mac Duvdavoren, who was the ancestor of the 
O'Donoghues of Killarney, in whose genealogy the Christian names Dungal, Cuduligh 
and Macraith are not found. 



52 THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

of the O'Mahons of Ivagha, that settled in Kerry in 1320, there were 
frequent intermarriag'es. 

It has not been possible to identify the Dun which was the residence 
of Donal, son of Duvdavoren. As Donal was a powerful chief, that Dun 
must have been an important one, surrounded b}'^ a number of Raths 
for his military followers. Possibly, as Rath Ivathleann was not identified 
until about ten years ago, some old MS. may yet be discovered which 
may describe the site of the Dun inhabited by Donal. The site should 
not, of course, be sought for in Kinalea and Kinelmeky, the original 
home of Cian's branch — the senior branch — of the Ui Eachach before it 
spread westwards. Cinel Laeghere did not become a place-name, but 
the name of Selbach (genitive, Shelbhaigh), fourth in descent from 
Laeghere, was very probably contained in Ballyshelbhaigh (now Bally- 
halwick), in the parish of Dunmanway, and *^Coill-tShelbhaigh, an im- 
mense wood which extended over the eastern part of the same parish 
and portion of the parish of Kinneig-h. Dr. O'Brien, in the Essay already 
quoted (Vallancey's Collectanea, vol. i.), indulges in some conjectures as 
to the habitat of this branch, and mentions, with some other localities, 
Ibh Laoghaire (Iveleary), but the Laoghaire who gave his name to that 
Sept-land of the O'Learys was of Corcalee origin, and of a totally distinct 
race from the Laoghaire, the ancestor of a branch of the Ui Eachach 
Mumhan. The same writer's conjectures as to the time and cause of 
the migration to Magunihy are equally erroneous and have been refuted 
in the foregoing pages. 

The Cinel Aedha, by the migration of the kindred tribe to Killarney, 
were left in exclusive possession of the extensive Sept-land, burthened 
with the task of defending it, with a diminished population. We shall 
find them designated in the Annals,, until the end of the twelfth century, 
by the old tribe name, "Ui Eachach Mumhan," and, subsequently, by 
the hereditary surname derived from Mahon, son of Cian, of whom now 
some account is to be given. 

^''Clan t-Sealbhaigh was one of the tribal names of the O'Donoghues. O'Heerin 

^^y^ '• O'Donoghue of Loch Lein, 

O'Donoghue of the full, strong Flesk 
Are over the Clann t-Sealbhaigh. 

[Addenda — An ancient poem in the Book of Leinster (Facsimile Ed. 46a) preserves 
the memory of a Ri Rathleann who is mentioned among the notables of Munster, who 
are contrasted with those of Leinster. From the names of some of those contemporaries, 
he must have flourished in the ninth century : — 

nir-Ain -pinsen, nA Aittit, 

Ocuf Ca-oj UActint) |iobin-o, 

nic-AiT) "OomriAit A *Ount/Ai|i. 

Fingin won't save thee nor Ailill, 

Nor Tadhg of pleasant Rathleann, 

Nor Donal of Dun Lair. 
According to the Dublin "Annals of Innisfallen," "Mahon, son of Kennedy .... 
was delivered up to Maolmuadh, and his brothers, Tadhg and Brian." Nothing more 
is known of these brothers, but the name of the latter is very probably contained in 
Curragh ui Briain, the name of a townland near Rath Rathleann, and in Farranbrien in Kinelea. 
In the "Essay on Tanistry," which includes a history of King Brian Boru and his successors, 
written by Dr. O'Brien, but published by Vallancey as his own, Maolmuadh is described as 
"the most powerful, the most restless, and the most ambitious of the Chiefs of the 
Eugenian line." One would think that Mahon, his opponent, and the aggressor in 
the feud, as we have shown, was better entitled to the two latter epithets. The writer 
goes on to say that "Maolmuadh treacherously murdered Fergraidh, King of Cashel," 
and gives as his authority the "Book of Munster." The "Leabhar Muimhnach" has 
been minutely examined, and, it may now be stated with confidence, no such assertion 
is to be found in it.] 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 53 



PART III. 

From the Accession of Mabon (a.d. 1014) to the Division of the Sept 

after a.d. 12 12. 

Mahon (iTlAtgAtrvAin), son of Cian and Sabia, daughter of Brian, who 
were married soon after the Battle of Bealach Leachta, a.d. 978,^ may have 
been about thirty-four years of age when he succeeded his father in a.d. 
1014. The first who is recorded as having borne the name of Mahon was 
Brian's elder brother, and it is not unlikely that the son of Cian was called 
after him as a further token of reconciliation with Brian. As the 
pi5t)^\fhnxX, or heir apparent of the Chief of the Ui Eachach, Mabon must, 
as a matter of course, have taken part in the eventful Battle of Clontarf. 
In every military expedition undertaken by a Tribe, the presence of the 
Tanist or heir apparent was as indispensably required as that of the 
Chief himself. This we learn from a multitude of passages in the Annals 
of the Four Masters and other Annals in which the ivij-Ox^rhriA is men- 
tioned among the slain. It will be remembered that at Clontarf the 
youthful heir of Murchadh, though scarcely of an age to bear arms, was 
in the fighting line. 

When the Cinel Laeghere Branch of the Tribe, in or about a.d. 10 15, 
migrated to Magunihy \a Kerry, Mahon and his Branch, the Cinel Aedha, 
were left in undisputed possei-sion of the entire Eoghanacht Ui Eachach, 
or Eoghanacht Raithleann. He is called in the Leahhar Oiris, "tli nA riAOi 
blponn, King (Chief) of the nine territories. " Investigation will show 
that this title implies an expansion of the Tribe-land beyond its limits in 
the ninth and tenth centuries, as described in the introductory portion 
of this history. To determine its extent in Mahon 's time, we must call 
to mind that in ancient Ireland (and in England also, as Mr. Green has 
shown in his Making of England) Dioceses were as a rule conterminous 
with the tribal limits. The Ui Eachach Sept-land vi^as the original Diocese 
of Cork, as Corcalee, the patrimony of O'Driscoll, was identified with the 
Diocese of Ross, Ui Fidhgenti with the Diocese of Limerick, the Kingdom 
of Meath with the extensive Diocese of Meath,^ and "there is evidence 
that since the introduction of Christianity Mac Giolla Padruig's land of 
Osraighe never extended beyond fhe bounds of the present Diocese of 
Ossory. " (O'Donovan, Notes to O'Heerin.) 

Hence the old ecclesiastical arrangements, whenever better known, 

1 The compiler of the (Dublin) "Annals of Innisfallen " (circa 1760) has the following 
under the year 978 : — " Peace was made between Brian and Cian, and Sadbh, the 
daughter of Brian, was given in marriage to Cian, and the tributes of the race of 
Eoghan Mor, and his (Cian's) hereditary portion from Cork to Carn Ui Neid, until 
Saerbretach should come to the sovereignty." The concluding portion of this entry 
afl'ords another instance of this Annalist's habit (which O'DonovKn often refers to) of 
manipulating facts mentioned in ancient records that he had access to, so as to make 
them accord with a theory of his own. It is simply incredible that the ambitious Brian 
ever contemplated that anyone outside his own family should obtain the sovereignty of 
Munster. which he had won by a severe struggle. In the contentions, already narrated 
from everv available source, tliat occurred after Brian's death, no one thought of Saer- 
bretach, either in connection with Munster or Desmond ; he lived and died in obscurity, 
being mentioned only in genealogical lists. The compiler was under the influence of the 
prominent position obtained by Saerbretach's posterity in the twelfth century. 

2 Formed by a union of older Dioceses within the bounds of Meath. 



54 THE o'mAHONYS of KINELM?:KY and IVAGHA. 

help us to reconstruct tribal limits and vice versa. "The boundary be- 
tween Ely O 'Carroll and ancient Meath," says O 'Donovan (Notes to 
O'Heerin, p. Ixxxiv.), "is determined by that of the Diocese of Killaloe 
and the Diocese of Meath." 

The Diocese of Cork, according to the Synod of Rathbreasil, which was 
held about 70 or 80 years after Mahon's death, extending "from Cork to 
Carn Ui Neid, and from the Abhain Mor (Blackwater) to the southern 
sea." The Ui Eachach tribe land, as has. been already proved by many 
testimonies, had the same eastern and western boundaries, and, that 
its northern and southern limits also coincided with those of the Diocese, 
is a justifiable inference from the numerous examples above quoted to 
show the relation of Tribeland and Diocese in ancient Ireland. The infer- 
ence is confirmed by the ancient quatrain preserved by Smith, which gives 
"the Paps on the North and the Southern Main" as the limits of the 
Sept-land In the time of " Flan, a predecessor of Bece. " 

The sub-denominations of the Tribe-land naturally became the 
" Decanatus " or Deaneries of the Diocese, and from the account of those 
Deaneries taken at a Government Inquisition in 161 5 from the old " rolls of 
the Diocese of Cork," which had come into the possession of Bishop 
Lyons (State Papers, a.d. 1588), we can recover the names of most of 
the "nine territories" (Haoi bfTorin) over which Mahon ruled. The 
Deaneries were seven — Kinelea, divided into Kinelea Citra and Kinelea 
Ultra (this latter identified with Kinelmeky) ; Kerricurrihy, Kilmughan or 
Ifflanloe (tli piAin Ittx^X)), Clanshealvy, Fonn-Iartharach, and the city, 
with its suburban parishes. Kinelea Ultra included " Ringrone, Killanay, 
Kilgobbin, Particula Gortnagross Templetryne, Rathclarine, Burrin, Kil- 
brittain, Rathdroutha, Dowagh alias Ballinady, Kilmodan alias Bally- 
modan, Knockavilly, St. Martin's (i.e., Templemartin), Innishannon, Kil- 
brogan, St. Michael's de Dowagh." This corresponds with O'Heerin's 
Kinelmeky, extending to "the harbour of white foam." But Kinelmeky, 
when these ecclesiastical divisions were made, was only a tribal and not 
yet a territorial name; otherwise it would have given its name to this 
Deanery called Kinelea Ultra. The Deaneries of Kinelea (Citra) and 
Kerricurrihy are the Baronies at present designated by the same names. 
Clanshealvy (Clann t-Sealbigh) included the parishes from Kinneigh to 
Drimoleague, with Ballymoney and Murragh. The Deanery of Kilmughan 
(otherwise "Ifflanloe") comprised Athnowen and Inchageela and the 
parishes that lie between them. The Deanery of Fonn-Iartharach 
("western land "), erroneously given as " Foueragh " in the document of 
1615, contained the six western parishes, already mentioned in the Intro- 
duction. {Cork Hist, and Arch. Journal, Oct. -Dec. , 1906, p. 191). 

Kerricurrihy at the close of the ninth century was a district with a 
chief of its own, " Fogarthach the Wise," who was slain in the battle of 
Ballaghmughna, in which Cormac Mac Cuilenan, King of Cashel, was 
defeated, in 903 (Annals Four M.). But it must have been subsequently- 
annexed, or at least made tributary, by the Ui Eachach Chiefs. Place 
names derived from Mahon are conclusive on that point. Lough Mahon 
(L06 tllAcg.Airinx^), at the eastern boundary, was probably so called from 
being the meeting place of the fleet of ships for which Mahon's tribe was 
noted in the time of King Brian. Ring Mahon (Rinn mAt^AmnA), 



THE O MAHONYS OF KlNELMEKY At^iD IVAGIIA. 55 

"Mahon's headland," was at one time the name of a parish containing 
eight ploughlands. There was also a Carrigmahon. 

Corcach (Cork), for many centuries the eastern boundary of the tribe- 
land, had become a part of it in the time of Cian and Mahon. The locality 
in which St. I^^inbar established his monastery, the nucleus of the future 
city, was according to the ancient Irish "Life of Barra," chapt. xiii., in- 
the district of the Uibh lair. These were a kindred tribe, being the 
descendants of the youngest son of Core, king of Munster, lar, about 
whom the Annals are silent, though his name is preserved in the genlealogi- 
cal lists in the Books of Leinster and Ballymote. But in the eleventh 
century Corcach had become dependent for protection on the Ui Eachach ; 
in Cian's tirhe in the year 1012 they went to the rescue of the city when being 
burned by the Danes, and Cathal, son of Donal, son of Duvdavoren, distin- 
guished himself by killing the leaders of the foreigners. Again, as we shall 
see later on, in the time of the grandson of Mahon, in 1088, the Clan saved 
the city from an incursion of the Leinster Danes. It cannot be supposed 
that, at such a period, Corcach was independent of the neighbouring Chief, 
on whom it had to rely for protection. 

As Kinelea, though ecclesiastically divided, was one tribal sub- 
denomination, we can make out only six of the "nine territories" from 
the seven Deaneries enumerated. A seventh territory would be Musgrylin 
(tnufst^xM'oe f^lAinn or f?loinn ^), a Deanery, comprising a number of 
parishes between the Blackwater and the Lee, belonging to the original 
Diocese of Cork (according to the Synod of Rathbreasil), but attached to 
Cloyne subsequently. There remain two territories unidentified. Hence 
it may be concluded that Mahon must have acquired two other districts 
outside his old hereditary Sept-land and outside the Diocese of Cork. 
Where are we to look for these? Perhaps some light is thrown on the 
question by the place-name Dunmahon, and by the tradition mentioned by 
Smith in the following passage of his History of Cork (p. 320, New Ed.) : — 
"To the west of Fermoy lies Carrig^anedy, i.e., the rock of the shield, 
where stood a castle (qu. Dun?), said to have been built by the Mahonys." 

During the Chieftainship of Mahon, in the year 1024, occurred the 
death, by assassination, of a remarkable man, Cuan O'Lochan, Ollamhand 
Chronicler, who in both capacities was long associated with Rath Rath- 
leann, near which a special residence'* was appropriated to him by Cian. 
His death is recorded by several Annalists, and by the Leabhar Oiris in the 
following terms : — ^a.d. 1024. CtiAn ^ O tochxiTn ^pT)ple -Agtif ef^nc^iT)e 
Gem mic 1TlA0ttniiAi"6 "00 ttlxitvtJ^'o." "This year was killed Cuan 

3 Muskry Flainn or Floin (varieties of spelling) originally included "Ifflonloe" as 
well as the Deanery " Musgrylin." The Flan mentioned in the Irish quatrain pre- 
served in Smith (" Hist, of Cork," new Ed., p. 14) as a predecessor of Bece (a quo 
Kinelmeky) as having conquered the entire of Muskerry is identified with Criompthan 
(Criffan) Ri Rathleann, the father of Aedh and Leaghere, ancestors of the two branches 
of the Ui Eachach. This is clear from a stanza in the " Leabhar Oiris " version 'of the 
topographical poem on Rath Rathleann : — 

" Cinet tAejeijie tYlic ploinn." 

Criompthan, therefore, the father of Aedh and Laeghere, must have borne also the 
name of " Flonn " or " Flan." 

4 See Topographical Poem already given in this "Journal," vol. xiii., No. 'j'^, p. 31. 
8 O'Lothcain in " Annals Four M." 



56 THE 0*MAIIONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

O'Lochan, chief File and Chronicler of Cian, son of Maolmuadh." This 
distin^-uishcd Ollamh left Rathleann some time after his patron's death, 
and is said to have been acknowledged as a regent or administrator of 
the kingdom of Ireland, after the death of Malachy, for two years. " It 
can hardly be said that his work was cut short, for more than 1,600 lines 
from his hand have come down to us. He was one of the most famous 
of a group of famous men belonging to the tenth and eleventh centuries, 
distinguished in their day as genealogists, chroniclers, and poets, whose 
voluminous productions have survived to our own time." (Text Book of 
Irish Literature, by Miss Hull, p. 170.) 

Under the year 1028 the death of Mahon is entered as follov>^s in the 
Leahhar Oiris : — ^" ITlAcJAMtiAMn, niAC Cein, true TDAOtmuxM-O, tli r\A uaoi 
b-f^onn, x.\5tif 1TlA0lfecU\nn 50-0, II1 niit)e -a'pAjb^il t)^if, ^nno "Oomini 
1028." " Mahon, son of Cian, son of Maolmuadh, King of the nine ter- 
ritories, and Maolsechlann The Stammerer, King of Meath, died." The 
Four Masters give 1038 as the date of Mahon 's death, but, for a reason 
already assigned, the Leahhar Oiris should be regarded as a preferable 
authority on South Munster affairs. 

Sabia survived her son three years. The (original) Annals of Innis- 
fallen, year 1831, have the entry: "SA-ob msen t)|\u\in •00 ecc." 
" Sadbh (pr. Soyve), daughter of Brian, died." The Leahhar Oiris, which 
gives fuller information than the Annals of Innisfallen about the history of 
the tenth and eleventh centuries, ends with the death of Mahon. 

It was reserved for this 'Chieftain that his name should be borne as a 
surname by his posterity, and, eventually (in the course of centuries), by 
the entire Sept, which included, of course, families descended from his 
cousins and remote relatives. In his time each member of an Irish tribe 
had, like an ancient Greek or Hebrew, only one name, and was distin- 
guished from others by mentioning the name of his father and grand- 
father. People grew impatient of this cumbrous arrangement, and a 
widespread preference was manifested for an unalterable surname towards 
the beginning of the twelfth century in Ireland and (a curious coincidence) 
in the same century in England also. It would be a mistake to assert 
(what has been often asserted) that the Irish families deliberately selected 
the name of their principal ancestor to be a surname ; it is not improbable 
that they began to be called after a certain ancestor by their neighbours,® 
and that they themselves gradually adopted the patronymic thus applied 
to them. Had Mahon 's descendants made a selection, the name chosen 
would assuredly be that of Cian. Mahon, CatHrach (from whom 
M'Carthy), Donchadh (from whom O'Donoghue) — to give a few out of 
many possible examples — ^were not the principal ancestors In their 
respective lines. And some families supposed to be called after their 
principal ancestor were in reality called after a descendant and namesake 
of his. 

Mahon 's name was also used In his Clan as a praenomen or Christian 

6 There can be little doubt that in this Avay originated many English surnames — (i^ 
residential, as John at the Well (Atwell), William at the Wood7 Thomas at the Field, 
Richard at the Townend, etc. ; and (2) nicknames turned into surnames, as Hogg, Heavy- 
side, Coward, Smallman, etc., acquiesced in rather than selected by their unlucky 
possessors. 



THE O^MAHONYS OF KILELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 57 

name, but, in the Ang-licizing- period, it was altered to Matthew. Maol- 
muadh was in more frequent use down to the 17th century, and even since 
in some Kerry families, altered into Myles. But the praenomen that was in 
most frequent use was Cian,^ fairly well Anglicized into Kean ; some 
deg-cncrate descendants have had the bad taste to change it into " Cain." 

Mahon's son and successor was Brodchon. Dr. O'Donovan calls him 
Brodchu. As the name Brodchon was used as a genitive ("Mac 
Brodchon ") in the genealogical list, he inferred by analogy a nominative 
Brodchu, but it would seem inaccurately. The word is apparently in- 
declinable, judging from the language of the entry, which we shall quote 
presently, from the (Dublin] Annals of Innisfallen. The only record that 
has come down to us about this Chief relates his participation in one of 
those deplorable inter-tribal feuds that had become more frequent than 
ever during the century and a half subsequent to the Battle of Clontarf. 
The entry referred to is: — " a.d. 1072. SU1A5 te t)|\o'ochoii mAC THac- 
gAttinxJk, m^c Cem, xwac \Y\AolmuAm, mic t3|\oin, Anfn^ *oeipb, &c., &c. " 
"A hosting by Brodchon, son of Mahon, son of Cian, son of Maolmuadh, 
son of Bron, into the Decies, from which he carried off much booty to 
recover which there was a pursuit by the people of Magh Feine, and an en- 
gagement followed, in which Mudan O'Driscoll, Chief of Corcalee, was slain, 
and many others on both sides." There was an old feud between South 
Munster and the Decies, and in Cian's time, as was shown in a previous 
page, from the Leahhar Oiris, the people of the Decies were the aggressors. 
As Brodchon was the leader of this expedition and other Chiefs followed 
his standard, he is thus shown to have kept up the leading position held 
by his father and his grandfather Cian, in Desmond. From the series 
of ancestors who are attached to his name in the above entry, it is evident 
that surnames had not yet come into use in his Clan, 1072. The state- 
ment made in Burke's Landed Gentry, that he was the first called 
"O'Mahon," is inaccurate; such an appellation in his time would mean 
grandson of Mahon. 

The year 10S8 was a memorable one in the records of the Ui Eachach 
Mumhan. In that year the Sept performed its most notable military ex- 
ploit, the defeat of a formidable combination of the Norsemen organised 
to plunder Cork. That city had enjoyed a respite from such attacks ever 
since a.d. 1012, when Cian's Clan came to its rescue — too late to prevent 
the burning, but in time to retaliate severely on the invaders. The burning 
of Cork in 1087, not being attributed by the Annalists to an invading force, 
must be regarded as accidental ; fires of accidental origin must have been 
of very frequent occurrence in ancient and mediaeval times, when towns were 
(like London at the period of the Restoration), " built for the most part of 
wood and plaster." (Macaulay, Hist, of Engl., vol. i., c. 3.) 

"In the year roSS," say the Four Masters, "a great slaughter was 
made by the Ui Eachach Mumhan, of the foreigners of Ath Cliath, Loch 
Garman and Portlairge (Dublin, Wexford and Waterford) in the day that 

<■ The families wlio retained (his Christian name, when it had been dropped by others, 
were known as " Kean Mahonys," or " Mahony Keans,'" and, eventually, many of 
these became known as Keane, the original name being qiiite forgotten, as McDonogh 
McCarthys became McDonoghs and Dennehys, and the descendants of a Brian McSwiney, 
Brians and O'Briens. 



58 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY ANt) IVAGHA, 

they jointly attempted to plunder Corcach Mumhan (Cork)."^ The fame 
of this exploit spread throughout Ireland, and the Annals vf Ulster men- 
tion it in terms almost identical with those that have been just quoted. The 
victory was a crushing one and verified the ancient battle-cry of the Sept," 
" Lasair Romhainn a Buadh." Had the foreigners succeeded, they would, 
most probably, have converted Cork into a well-fortified stronghold like 
Dublin, and continued to make predatory incursions into the surrounding 
country.^" All Desmond, and not Cork alone, was deeply interested in 
the result of the combat, which one tribe had the courage andi the power to 
undertake : — 

" Una domus vires et onus susceperat Urbis, 
Sumunt gentiles arma professa manus." ^^ 

It is improbable that the battle was fought in the vicinity of Cork. The 
Clan was able on this occasion to prevent the intended plundering, and 
not merely to retaliate on the plunderers after the injury was done, as in 
IOI2. Now, it would not be possible to receive notice of the movements 
of the Danish ships, to muster a sufficient number of clansmen in the 
vicinity of the Chief's residence, and to reach Corcach, fifteen miles distant, 
before the Danes could have sailed up from the mouth of the harbour. 
It is more likely that it was in the heart of their tribeland that they inter- 
cepted the Danish forces, who may have followed the same course as their 
predecessors in the ninth century, when they ^^ "ravaged Carbery and 
Muskerry, and a third went towards Corcach." They probably entered 
Kinsale Harbour and sailed up to Innishannon, intending to march through 
Kinelmeky and the valley of Muskerry on to Corcach, to which they would 
have sent round their ships. Certain it is that in the earlier part of the 
nineteenth century the tradition prevailed that a battle was fought 
between the Irish and' the Danes at Castle na Leachta (Castle Lac) in 
Kinelmeky. In the field near the ruins of the old castle there are four 
pillar stones, whose number and traditional name (Leachta) indicate that 
the plain on which they stand was a battle-field. They are of considerable 
size, one being twelve feet high, another nine, and another six. They are 
of clay slate, a material not to be found in that red sandstone district, and 
must have been brought with much labour from a considerable 
distance to commemorate an event evidently deemed of no ordinary 
Importance. ^^ 

^ Sir James Ware had followed some other ancient record, which gave 1089 as the 
late of this battle : — " Ostmanni Dublinii, Wickloae et Waterfordiae, dum conjunctis 
firibus Corcagiam diripere intenderent, ab Oneaghensibus in praelio fusi et profligati 
mnt." Jacobi Waraei, Equltis Aurati, Liber De Hibernia et Antiquitatibus ejus. Lord. 
(658, 2nd Ed. Ware's " Oneaghenses " has been ridiculously translated " the Oneachys " 
by a writer in an old number of this " Journal." 

9 See the War Cries of the different Irish Septs, afterwards the mottoes of families, 
in a MS. ot Theophilus O'Flanagan, in R. I. Academy. 

10 In the next century the Danes came into Cork in the peaceful capacity of traders. 
i^Ov. FastoTum Lib. II., 197. 

12 "Wars of the Gael," p. 31. See also p. 7, "and they (the Danes) plundered 
Dundermuighe and Innis Eoganain," Dimderrow and Innishannon. 

^^ In Lewis's " Topographical Dictionary," published 1835, the writer of the article on 
Templemartin alludes to the tradition of the battle between the Irish and the Danes, 
but mis-states it completely in saying that the pillar stones were erected to commemorate 
the victory by the Danes in 86^. Perhaps by a slip of the pen " by " was substituted 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 59 

In the following year, io8g, according to the (DubUn) Annals of Innis- 
f alien, a combat took place between the Ui Eachach and Dermod O'Brien, 
with the result that "two hundred of Dcrmod's soldiers were slain." 
Dermod being at feud with his brother, Murchertach, King of Munster, 
whose Lcinster enemies he openly joined in 1087, and being expelled from 
Thomond, may have sought to make a settlement for himself in Brodchon's 
tribe-land. 

Brodchon, if alive in those years, would have been too old to take an 
active part in those two combats, and the office of leader would devolve on 
his son and successor, Cumara, who ruled the Clan from Brodchon's death 
to the beginning of the twelfth century. The claim to the sovereignty of 
Munster, which Cian had put forward after the Battle of Clontarf, was not 
renewed by the Chiefs who succeeded him. They acquiesced in the supre- 
macy of the House of Brian, and consoled themselves with their privilege 
of exemption from tribute, recognised in the Book of Rights. ''^''^ So wrote 
the Tribal Bard in some archaic verses, which must be referred to this 
period, and are preserved in MS. 23, G. 22, p. 49, and other MSS. (R. I. 
Academy) : — 

" UjtiAc A^\^ i5 CAil mA cA Ann, An 1,a -oo 6615 a|i a cion 
ni b>mit Acc fin OjitA Ann t)A\\-\\ 6 bjioin x)a jcfiomA A cion." 

"Though a Chief of the Ibh Tail (O'Briens) be in it (i.e., the sovereignty 
of Munster), the day that the offspring of Bron (i.e. an O'Mahon) goes to 
meet him, he has nothing to do but to salute by an inclination of the head." 

The entry of Cumara's death, is placed under the year 1091 in the 
{original) Annals o//wni5/aZZew:--11lAct)|\OT:cori,htix\1Tlxit5Arhnx^'oorhAfvt!)AT), 
See, Sec. " O'Mahon, the son of Brodchon, was killed ^^ treacherously by 
the son of Maolmuaidh,^*^ the son of Matudain." The above year cor- 
responds with the year 1107; owing to the defective chronology ^^ adopted 
by the Innisfallen Annalists in the tenth and eleventh centuries, all events 
are ante-dated by sixteen years. " Ua tTlAtJArhnA" is used in this entry 
as a true surname; if the Annalist meant " grandson of Mahon," he would 
have used the accustomed formula, ''tTlxiC ITIic tTl^tSArhn^A," or m^c 
tDfocCon tnic TnAtgArhnxV." 

In the same Annals the death of his successor, Donogh Donn, who in 

for " over." The erection of pillar stones was an Irish, not a Danish, custom. More- 
over, the Danes in their sudden forays for plunder would not remain in a hostile 
territory long enough to transport such huge masses of stone from a great distance. 
Tradition would not fix the date 868, which must be that writer's conjectural addition. 
His own theory of the Druidical origin of the stones is futile, and opposed to the still 
existing traditional name, Leachta, " sepulchral monuments." 

1^ See quotation from the Leabhar na gceart in p. 27, (Jan. -March No. of this 
" Journal," 1907.) 

■••^ Cfe t)Aoj;iii is curiously rendered by Dr. O'Connor (Rerum Hibernicarum Scrip- 
tores Veteres), "prae timore." The phrase occurs a few times in the "Annals Four M," 
where O'Donovan translates it, "by an unfair advantage." 

16 Not identified. The name, and its variety Madadhan, was a usual one in the 
North and in Connacht ; there is also an instance of it among the Dalcassians. (" Annals 
F. M.," 1088). 

17 See Dr. Todd's "Wars of the Gael," p. 240, note. Dr. O'Connor (Rerum Hibern. 
Script. Vet.) has the following note at A.D. 1022: — "Hi Annales Aeram Communem praecedunt 
annis 17." This refers to one particular entry ; sixteen would represent the more usual 
discrepancy. The defects of their chronological system do not impair the credit of those 
Annals. 



6o THE 0*MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

all probability was engaged, as being the iMj-OAttiriA, in the two combats 
above mentioned, is recorded in the year 1102, recte 11 18: — XY\ac ITIic 
bpocCon, UA rnxNcjAriinA-ooecc. He was succeeded by his son, Cian (a.d. 
1118-1135), the third of his line who bore that name. In this Chieftain's 
first year commenced the decline of the Sept's predominance in South 
Munster. We shall, therefore, take occasion to recapitulate in a few brief 
sentences what has been proved regarding the position it held in Munster 
from the sixth to the twelfth century. 

The posterity of Eochaidh, son of Cas, son of Core, King of Munster, 
were the first to detach themselves from the main stock, and form a 
separate tribe, which established itself in the present County of Cork, while 
the other Eoghanachts were domiciled in Tipperary and part of Limerick. 
(See introductory chapter, p. 192, note.) The other families descended 
from Core, through Aengus K.M. (ob. 489), were designated by the name 
of " Ui Aenghusa of the South," and under that name constituted one 
composite tribe in a.d. 862 {Annals F.M.). In it were the families that 
afterwards acquired the names of O' Sullivan (now known to 
be the senior of those families ^^), MacCarthy, &c., &c. The 
sovereignty of Munster down to the time of Brian and his 
brother Mahon continued to be the privilege of Core's descendants, but 
not of any one family ^^ among them ; it was elective, not hereditary, and 
rarely was any King of Munster (immediately) succeeded by his son. 
Amongst those Kings of Munster were three of the Ui Eachach (one being 
of the CInel Laeghere), and evidence has been given that the Chiefs of the 
Clan were lords of Desmond as far back as a.d. 845, and no ancestor of 
any other tribe can be shown to have been described by that title before 
A.D. 1118. 

The families above mentioned as having been included under the name 
of the " Ui Aenghusa of the South" were for a half-century before, 
and about a half-century after, the date of the Battle of Clontarf, in a 
state of obscurity ; they are not mentioned at all in the Annals of that 
period. But in the twelfth century one of them obtained a prominence that 
lasted for over four hundred years. Carthach, the ancestor of the M'Carthys 
(ob. 1045, Ajtnals F.M.), and his two successors, Donogh and Muirieadhach 
(1092), lived and died Chiefs of Eoghanacht Cashel, which coincided with 
the Barony of Iffa and OfTa"" in Co. Tipperary. Such also was the 
designation of Tadhg, son of Carthach, until 11 18. In that year Tadhg 

1^ So O'Donovan and Duald MacFirbis have proved. 

19 From the foregoing pages it will be seen that Mr. Gibson, in chap, i of his 
" History of Cork," commenced with a sweeping mis-statement. Summarizing the his- 
tory of Mimster before Brian Bern's time, he says : " Munster had been from an 
early_ period, possessed by the Mac Carthys of Cork, and the Dalcassians, or 
O'Briens, of Limerick. The King of the whole of Munster was chosen alternately from 
these two great families." The facts are : — (i) That of the first mentioned of those 
Septs (if we exclude Core and other Kings common to many tribes) there were pnly 
three Kings of Munster before Brian's time, namely, Failbe Flann, Colgu, and 
Ceallachan Cashel. See " Wars of the Gael," p. 240,' and note in Chron. Scotorum, 
as to Donogh, son of Ceallachan Cashel. (2) That of the Dalcassian or O'Brien race there 
were most probably none at all. (Dr. Todd, and see also p. 80, April-June, 1907, No. of 
this " Journal.") 

2" O'Donovan's notes on O'Heerin. O'Donoghues, a different tribe from those of 
the Ui Eachach, are often mentioned in the Annals as Chiefs of this district in ^hv 
earlier part of the eleventh century. But they appear to have died out. 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 6 1 

united with the " people of Desmond," or at least some section of them, in 
an attack on Brian, son of Murchad O' Brian, who was killed in the combat. 
Influenced by this evidence of Tadh^'s hostility to the O'Briens, Turlough 
O'Connor, Kin^ of Connacht, their arch-enemy, when he had successfully 
invaded Munsler, that same year, divided it into two independent pro- 
vinces, raising- Tadhj^ to the position of Kinj^- of Desmond. Tadhg, how- 
ever, appears to have never come to live in the South, but ended his days in 
Eoghanacht Cashel (Annals F.M., 1124). Turlough O'Connor restored 
Tadhg's race when "expelled from Desmond in 11 39," and in 1151 
Dermod (King- of Desmond at the time of the Norman Invasion) " assumed 
the sovereignty of Desmond, by the help of the Connacht men." [Annah 
F.M., the latter clause accidentally omitted in O'Donovaii's translation.) 

But the Chiefs of South Munster did not acquiesce without a struggle in 
O'Connor's arrangement. Cormac, the successor of Tadhg, was expelled 
by the Ui Eachach in 1126. So says the (Bodleian) Annals of Jnnis fallen 
under the year 11 10 (recte 1126) : — " Cormac, grandson of Carthach, was 
expelled by the Ui Eachach of his own province" (tio n-iti) GaCx\C 'pen). 
The generic name implies that the Annalist ^^ includes both branches so 
called, and in 1127 " O'Mahon " and O'Donoghue " are expressly named 
by the (Dublin) Innisfallen Annals as combining with three other Chiefs 
against Donogh McCarthy, who was also expelled. The above entry in 
the (Bodleian) Annals about the combination against Cormac McCarthy 
cannot be reconciled with that in the Annals of the Four Masters, which 
ascribes Cormac's dethronement to O'Connor. But in Munster affairs 
the authority of the original Innisfallen Annalist should not be set aside; 
it is, moreover, confirmed to a certain extent by an entry in the Annales 
Hiberniai, quoted by Ware in his notes on the Charter ^^ alleged to have 
been given by Dermod McCarthy to a Church in Cork. It is quoted in 
English characters as follows : — " Cormac mac Muriagh mic Carthaigh 
do aithsiocean do matuib agus a dul go Llosmor an olithre. " The correct 
reading would be (as required by the context) do aithrioghadh do maithib — 
Cormac was dethroned by nobles (Chiefs) and went to Lismore, &c. The 
Chiefs are not named, but the Annalist would surely mention the King of 
Connacht, if he took part in the action. 

The time of Cian's chieftainship was certainly a disturbed one. He 
took part with "the Chieftains of Munster and Thomond " in some ex- 
pedition, against whom we are not precisely informed, but a battle took 
place at Clonenagh, near Mountrath, where, according to the (Dublin) 
Annals of Innisfallen, a.d. 1135, " Cian, son of Donogh Donn, son of 
Cumara, son of Brodchon, O'Mahon, King of Ui Eachach, was killed." ^^ 

21 He mentions that the O'Donoghue Chief, " Cahal of the red hand, grandson- 
of Donal, King of the Ui Eachach (i.e., his own portion thereof), was killed on that 
occasion. Plainly, this Annalist had a good opportunity of hearing all about Cormac's 
expulsion. 

22 In a special article at a future date, the present writer intends to prove that the 
Charter is a forgery, concocted two centuries after Dermod's time. 

23 A strange mistake was made in the " Annals of the Four Masters " in giving to a 
chief of a different tribe and territory who died in this Cian's time, in ii2r, Maolsechlann 
TJa Callachain, the name of " Chief of the Eachach Mumhan." O'Donovan, who had 
omitted to comment on this in his Ed. of the Annals,^ supplied the omission in the 
notes that he wrote for the genealogical chapters in " Cambrensis Eversu s (Dr. Kelly's 
Edition). "This," he writes, "is a mere blunder, the Ui Eachach Mumhan were the 



62 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

The immediate successor of Cian (the third) was not his son, who must 
have been under age in 1135, as his death is recorded in 1212. By the 
Tani§t law his brother, or other near relative, became head of the Sept. 
The Christian name of this successor has not been preserved, but in the 
Annals, under the year 1137, we find that " Cormac M'Carthy, O'Mahon, 
O'Donoghue and other chiefs went to Portlairge to oppose Turlough 
O'Brien." Cian's son, however, afterwards succeeded to the Chieftain- 
ship, for in the same Annals is the entry : — " a.d. 1171. Donogh O'Mahon 
over the Ui Eachach ; Donal O'Donoghue over the Eoghanacht of Loch 
Lein. " In subsequent entries, and in the genealogical table, Donogh is 
described as the son of Cian. We are now arrived at the period of the 
Norman Invasion. 

Donogh, son of Cian the third of that name, succeeded to the chief- 
tainship on the death of his uncle, who fell in the victorious attack made on 
the English garrison of Waterford by the Irish of South Munster ^* at the 
close of the year 1170. It was the custom of clansmen to attach to the 
name of the Chief a Le^f Ainm, or sobriquet, suggested by some personal 
peculiarity or circumstance connected with his place of birth or fosterage. 
Donogh 's only salient peculiarity was a habit of going the round of his 
forts and living for some time in each, instead of residing permanently or 
principally at Rath Rathleann. Hence the appellation of Donchadh, " Na 
Himerce (Himerke) Timchill," or, more briefly, " Na Himerce, "^^ Donogh 
" of the changes of residence," as ho is generally called in the Annals and 
Genealogies. As may be seen by referring back to Genealogical Tables 
Nos. I. and II., he is the stem tO' which the genealogists trace not only 
the two principal septs of the name (those of Kinelmeky and Ivagha), but 
all the minor septs or families. He held a memorable position also in the 
tribal history as having been the last chieftain whO' succeeded to the 
entire territory ^® of his ancestors. That territory was of a straggling, 
inconvenient conformation, most difficult to defend at a time when sudden 
incursions were the rule rather than the exception in Irish warfare, and 
when a standing force was not usually maintained. Before the ' ' hosts 
from Carn Ui Neid " could arrive or even be summoned from the west, 
a muster of clansmen in the eastern parts might be hopelessly outnumbered 
and cut to pieces by an invader. Under this disadvantage, an almost 
perpetual struggle had to be kept up against the encroachments of the 

O'Mahonys and O'Donoghues." It was simply an error such as often occurs when a 
writer happens to fix his eye on a word in the previous line and unconsciously reproduces 
it. In the " Annals of the Four Masters," in the line before the above entry, the name 
Eachach, referring to those of the North, occurred twice. The accidental error of the B'our 
M. is kept up in the Catalogue of the R.I. A. in describing the shrine of S. Lachteen, 
ordered to be made by the Chief referred to. 

24 " Annals of Innisfallen " (Dublin copy), under the year 1170. 

25 In the genealogical notes (chiefly derived from Sir William Betham) appended to 
the " Life of the last Colonel of the Irish Brigade," the name is curiously mistranslated, 
"Donogh of the pilgrimages." Imerce never meant a pilgrimage; it means "a shifting' 
of the household goods and furniture from one holding to another, a departure, a 
migration." (Dinneen's Irish-English Dictionary, s.v.) 

2 6 The Ostmen or Danes of Cork certainly possessed, at the time of the Norman 
Invasion, a cantred near Cork, as appears from the Charter of Henry II. to Fitzstephen 
and De Cogan. This may have been part of Kerricurrihy, which, however, was not an 
original part of the tribeland of the Ui Eachach, though, as has been proved, it formed 
part of it in the time of Mahon. , 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 63 

English invaders and of Irish neig-hbours on the integrity of the tribe- 
land during the chieftainship of Donogh na Himerce. 

Dermod MacCarthy, King of Desmond, called by the EngHsh, King 
of Cork, was the first Irish prince to do homage to Henry when he came 
in person. It is very probable that his motive was to secure, by 
means of an apparently powerful and trustworthy suzerain, his own pre- 
carious position, which (as was shown in the foregoing pag-es) was derived 
from the support of the King- of Connacht, and not from the consent or 
through the conquest of the other chiefs of Cork and Kerry. Neither he ^^ 
nor any of the others who formally submitted to Henry, observes Mr. 
Haverty, ' understood Norman rapacity, or could have imagined that in 
paying homage to Henry as liege lord, they were conveying to him the 
absolute ownership of their territories." Absorbed in their own local 
feuds, they had not followed the course of events in England since the 
Conquest, or they would have been warned by the fate of the Anglo- 
Saxons,^* every rood of whose lands was confiscated, and they themselves 
reduced to abject serfdom. Those Irish chiefs soon found Norman rule 
to be what, according to Mr, Lecky, it continued for centuries to be, " too 
weak to introduce order and obedience, yet sufficient to check the growth 
of any enterprising genius amongst the natives ; . . . . like a spear- 
point embedded in a living body, it inflamed all around it and deranged 
even vital functions." "It prevented," says Hallam, "the rise, in the 
course of time, of an Egbert or Harold to consolidate the provincial king- 
doms into one hereditary monarchy." The faithlessness of the Norman 
was also made evident by the Charter given in 1177 to the two adven- 
turers, Fitzstephen and De Cogan, a sweeping confiscation, or attempted 
confiscation, of the rights of chiefs and clansmen, who, if the attempt 
could be carried out, would henceforward exist on sufferance in their own 
land. The adventurers were owners of the whole county as far as a piece 
of parchment could make them owners, and their representatives in after 
times often described themselves, or were described in Inquisitions and by 
some recent writers, as "owners" of places they never were able to 
seize; thus Barry Oge was often described as the "owner" of Kinelmeky 
and Ibh Flan Lua (Muskerry). Of the thirty-one cantreds of the " Kingdom 
of Cork" (O 'Donovan says " there was no such Kingdom"), they were only 
able to appropriate " seven contiguous to the city," says Giraldus, " agree- 

27 Mr. Gibson, repeating a statement for which Smith quotes no authority, says that 
"the Ostmen held Cork and the adjacent country in 1172," and that consequently 
Mac Carthy "cannot have delivered up the city, which was in the possession of another." 
The Ostmen lived in a portion of the city, but if Cork was theirs, it would have had 
a Danish Bishop, acknowledging the jurisdiction of Canterbury, like Dublin and Limerick, 
where they had complete control. Mr. Gibson was not a critical writer on this period 
of Irish history, and filled many pages with mere fiction taken from the " Book of 
Howth," "written," says Dr. O'Donovan, "by some Anglo-Irish romancer." 

28 The Anglo-Saxons make a poor figure in history as compared to the Irish. "They 
bowed to the Norman as they bowed to the Dane," says Mr. Green (" Short History of 
the English People"). After one b'attle and an abortive attempt at insurrection, jthey 
resigned themselves to the oppression and contempt of their Norman masters. The 
Irish struggle for independence, under all the disadvantages of almost complete disunion, 
lasted for five centuries. The Attorney-General of James I., Sir John Davies, had 
occasion to write a book in 1612, entitled " A discoverie of the causes why Ireland was 
never brought under obedience to the Crown of England," and he " discovered " that 
" it is most certain that from Henry II. to 39th year of Elizabeth the English forces 
were too weak to subdue so many warlike septs." 



64 THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

ing to divide the tribute of the other twenty-four when they should have 
been brought into subjection." Cox improves on Giraldus by stating that 
" Dermod Mac Carthy and the others accepted of grants of those cantreds, 
paying a small yearly chief rent thereout." (Cox's Regnum Corcagiense). 
It is now well known that there were no such "grants" either given or 
accepted. 

Had Donogh Na Himerce gone to make his submission to the English 
King, his action would have been recorded as was that of the Chief of the 
Deise, certainly not a more important tribe in South Munster than the 
Ui Eachach. There is reason for believing that he maintained towards 
the invaders the same attitude as his predecessor, who died fighting against 
them at Waterford ; he, too, as we shall see, lost his life in the same way, 
after having undergone a considerable spoliation at their hands. This 
spoliation commenced in 1179; we are informed that the grantees of 
Henry's Charter given in 1177 proceeded to seize seven cantreds two years 
afterwards. De C'ogan succeeded in seizing Dundrinane (now Castle- 
more), in the Muskerry portion of Donogh's territory, and as we learn 
from Cox (Regnum Corcagiense) fixed his residence there. It afterwards 
passed from him either by grant or by forcible capture to the son of 
Dermod Mac Carthy. Kinelea, in the east, was invaded and made over 
subsequently to Robert Fitzmartin,^^ from whom it passed to the Barrys. 
On the west coast, Richard de Carew, Marquis of Cork, who died In iigS^ 
seized on Innisfodda (Long Island) and another ploughland, which he 
afterwards restored by way of a marriage portion when his daughter 
married Dermod Mor O'Mahon, the eldest son of Donogh. These seizures 
were rendered comparatively easy by the disastrous feuds that had arisen, 
at a most inopportune time, between the Irish tribes. In 1178 there had 
occurred one of the periodical wars between Thomond and Desmond, with 
the result, according to the Dublin Annals of Innisf alien, that "the 
country between Cork and Limerick was devastated, and the greater part 
of the race of Eoghan Mor fled Into the woods of Ivagha." The compiler 
of those Annals, as v/e have often before observed, is not an impartial 
authority In recounting the exploits of the Dalcassian race; but whatever 
may have been the result of the war, It must have greatly weakened the 
Irish and favoured the enterprise of the English adventurers. Under the 
year 1179 an entry in the same Annals records that before that year, or 
at least before the end of It, Dei-mod Mac Carthy and O'Donoghue of 
Loch Lene (Klllarney) had attacked and ' ' expelled Donogh Na Himerce 
O'Mahon, King of the UI Eachach." It Is plain from this entry that 

29 Kinelea (see ante, Part I. p. 10) was the old original possession of the Cinel Aedha, 
the elder branch of the Ui Eachnch, the branch afterwards called after Mahon. From the 
genealogical pages of the "Book of Leinster" it is evident that no other Munster tribe 
was designated by that name, and that O'Donovan's conjecture on this point is un- 
foimded. There is not the shadow of a proof that it ever passed to the Mac Carthys. 
Fitzmartin was in possession in 1207, and the Barrys, who obtained it from him, were- 
in occupation in 1240. ("Records of the Barrys," by Rev. Edm. Barry.) Some one of 
those families was, therefore, the occupier when Tracton Abbey was built in 1224. 
D'Allemand's (A.D. 1690^ conjecture that it was built by the Mac Carthys (followed by Archdall and 
Smith) was an inference from an unfounded opinion that they were in occupation. One 
circumstance is quite decisive on this matter. The monks were brought from Alba Landa 
in Wales, the country of the Fitzmartins and Barrys. There were at that time in Ireland 
thirteen Cistercian Abbeys, and an Irish founder would have brought the monks, from 
some one of those, at a time when animosity between English and Irish was at its height. 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 65 

Donogh's power was considerable when Dermod Mac Carthy did not 
venture to attack him without being- reinforced by an auxiliary. It is plain, 
too, that Dermod 's power over Co. Cork tribes was rather nominal than 
raal, as he had to procure the required aid from the O'Donoghues seated 
in distant Magunihy, in Kerry. There is decisive evidence that Donogh 
recovered his position after this defeat, for in the Bodleian Annals of Innis- 
fallen, under the year 1206, we read : — " The son of Dermod Mac Carthy ^*^ 
stirred against Fineen and Donogh Cairbreach O'Brien and O'Mahon and 
all Desmond." This quotation has to be given from an old English trans- 
lation of the 17th century in T.C.D. Library, as the Irish text from the 
Bodleian MS. in Dr. O'Connor's edition is not complete, but ends with the 
year iig6. The passage is obscurely worded, but one thing appears plain 
enough, viz., that O'Mahon (Donogh Na Himerce) is mentioned as a 
power in Desmond. From the same (Bodleian) Annals, under the year 
1 201, we learn that in a war between Thomond and Desmond a portion of 
Donogh's tribeland, that in the vicinity of the Round Tower of Kinneigh, 
was terribly devastated. The O'Briens formed an alliance with De Burgo, 
who, like his confreres, was glad to Interfere in Irish quarrels, and 
Dalcassian and English troops marched, says the Annalist, " into Muskerry 
Mitine, where they took many spoils, and then they marched to Kinneigh, 
whe<re they tarried seven days, and they burned much corn in all the places 
they reached. They also killed Amhlaoibh O 'Donovan, King of Hy 
Cairbre (Aedhbha) and Mac Oisdelb with some of his followers and many 
others." The Dublin copy of the Annals of Innis fallen alters the above 
by saying that O'Donovan was killed "at Kinneigh/' and Dr. O'Donovan 
improves on this by the Inference that O'Donovan was "then for some 
time seated at Kinneigh/' However, in another passage (Annals F. M., 
vol. 2, p. 934) he holds the opinion that the O'Donovan tribe did not 
abandon their home in Hy FidgentI, Co. Limerick until the year 1229.'^ 

30 In the Dublin copy of the "Annals of Innisfallen," under the same year, Donogh 
Na Himerce is mentioned with Donogh O'Brien and O'Donoghue as taking part in the 
" dethronement " of Fineen Mac Carthy (son of Dermod, King of Cork), who was re- 
placed by his nephew and rival, Dermod Mac Carthy, of Dundroighnan. Donogh 
evidently took advantage of this dissension to obtain for himself immunity from attacks 
from that quarter. 

31 In his notes to "Annals Four M.," A.D. 1178, the editor quotes, apparently without 
dissenting from it, the following passage of Dr. O'Brien (in Vallancey's Collectanea) : — 
"In this expedition, the Dalcassians (1173) routed the O'Donovans of Hy Figuinte or 
Carbre Aedhbha, in the Co. Limerick, and the O'Collinses of Ive Connaill Gabhra, or 
Lower Connallo, and drove them beyond the mountains of Mangerton to the western 
parts of the Co. Cork. Here these two exiled Eugenian families, being powerfully 
a'jsisted bv the O'Mahonys, made new settlements for themselves in the ancient properties 
of the O'Donoghues, the O'Driscolls and O'Learies, to which three families the 
O'Mahonj's were always declared enemies, and who were now driven to the borders of 
Loch Lene (Killarney), where Auliff Mor O'Donosrhue had made some settlement before 
this epoch." The assistance rendered to the "two exiled Eugenian families" is in 
accordance with old and constant tradition, but all the subsequent statements are grosslv 
inaccurate. It has been already shown that the whole tribe of O'Donoghue migrated 
about 101?, and that their lands became part of the "nine territories" of Mahon. A 
small portion of a tribe could not conquer Magunihy from the O'Carrols, and a portion 
of the tribe left in the Ui Eachach tribeland would be dispossessed bv their (then) 
hostile kinsmen of Mahon's tribe. There were not infrequent intermarriages between 
the families of the O'Mnhon and O'Driscoli Chiefs. Sir Fineen O'Driscol) was the 
grandson of Connor Fionn O'M. of Ardintennant Castle, Chief of Tvagha. Dr. 
O'Donovan often alludes to the persistent inaccuracy, in historical matters, of that 
distinguished Irish scholar, Dr. O'Brien. 



66 THE o'mahonvs of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

This is a dreary narrative of feuds and rapine in the South of Ireland. 
Chroniclers of most other parts of the country record similar events, but it 
should be borne in mind that this state of affairs was not pecuUar to the 
Irish tribes. "About this period," says Mr. Haverty {Hist of Ireland, 
chapt. xxi), "the mutual feuds of the EngHsh Barons in Ireland were as 
capricious and sanguinary as any that we have had to lament among the 
Irish." And if we look to the Continent, Germany was passing through 
the anarchy of the "Great Interregnum," and Italy was beginning to be 
torn asunder by the Guelph and the Ghibelline factions, which for two 
centuries embroiled its numerous petty republics. Rarely has it happened 
in any country in former times that domestic dissensions were checked by 
the apprehension that advantage might be taken of them by a foreign 
enemy. These observations it is necessary to make, as some readers 
might imagine that there was not, outside of Ireland, any instances of the 
folly exhibited by Mac Carthy ^2 and O'Donoghue in attacking O'Mahon in 
1 179, in the presence of the EngHsh enemy, by whom they both lost their 
lives — the one in that very year, and the other in 1185. 

After 1206 we have no record about O'Mahon until 12 12, and he may 
have enjoyed an interval of peace, rare in his troubled career. By inces- 
sant struggles he had succeeded in preserving about two-thirds of his 
septland. But in 12 12 the heroic old chieftain, who, born before 1135, 
must have been in or about his eightieth year, was once more in arms in 
defence of his rights against the EngHsh invaders, and the result is told 
by the Annalist : — T)onneAt^ nA llimifce Uimcitt O tTlAtj^rhnA -00 mAjtbA* 
•00 ?;Allx\it), "was killed by the foreigners." 

Donogh left three sons, Muirchertach, Dermod Mor, and Conchobar. 
The chieftainship devolved on the eldest son, Muirchertach. His name, 
preseirved in the Annals, does not occur in the genealogies, as his line 
became extinct by a tragic event, which will presently be related. Dermod 
Mor became the ancestor of the Chiefs of Ivagha, and Conchobar of those 
of Kinelmeky. The division of the sept may be considered to date from 
the time of Muirchertach. It was not the result of internal discord in the 
ruling family of the clan, but arose naturally through force of circum- 
stances. Dermod Mor appears to have had during his father's lifetime, 
charge of the western portion of the tribeland. A portion — a small por- 
tion only — of the tribeland had been seized by Richard de Carew, one of the 
Norman adventurers who established himself in the West, obtained the title 



32 As Dermod Mac ,Carthy, King of Desmond, was the first Irish Chief who submitted 
to Henry II., his name has become a byword and a reproach. But it should be remem- 
bered that he repented of his course of action, and became a determined enemy of the 
unprincipled King^, in whose view suzerainty implied a right of wholesale confiscation. 
Mr. D. F. Mac Carthy, in his spirited poem, " The Clan of Mac Caura," places Dermod 
on a " bad eminence " as the " base Dermod Mac Caura," for whose treason his posterity 
wept. But who "wept for his treason?" Not certainly Mac Carthy Reagh, who in 
A.D. I4q6, when English power was at its lowest ebb, bound himself and successors in 
an " indenture," still extant, " to pursue and punish " his brother Irishmen who might' 
be " rebels" against English rule, and whose line Cox certifies to have been of untainted 
loyalty until 1641, when Celtic independence was gone. Not Mac Carthy of Muskerry ; 
Sir Cormac Mnc Teig was a paragon of loyalty, and his successor sent a thousand men 
to oppose O'Neil and O'Donnell at Kinsale. Not Mac -Carthy Mor, about whom see 
the scathing language of Dr. O'Donovan in notes to "Annals of the Four Masters," 
ii;q6. Mac Donogh Mac Carthy of Duhallow and Donogh Maol, brother of Florence in 
Elizabeth's time, would certainly have lamented the " treason of Dermod." 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGIIA. 67 

of Marquess of Cork, and built the Castle at Dunnamark.^^ He gave his 
daughter in marriage^"* to Dermod Mor, giving (in reality restoring), by 
way of a marriage portion, the island of Innisfodda (now Long Island) 
and a townland, " C'alloghe-Chrage, by Schull Haven," which townland 
the present writer cannot identify. This statement rests on the authority 
of Sir George Carew, " a born genealogist," as he has been called, who was 
a descendant of the Marquess, and had, at the end of the i6th century, 
access to accurate information on the subject. Moreover, in the Irish 
genealogies (as in MS, 23!, H.l.e., R.I. Academy) we find a " Ricard " 
among the four sons of Dermod Mor — a name sufficiently indicative of a 
Norman connection. Muirchertach was, no doubt, during his lifetime 
chief of all the tribeland east and west. But when the time came for 
Dermod to succeed him, part of the territory between Kimelmeky and Ivagha 
had been seized by Donal Gott Mac Carthy, and it was felt that it was no 
longer expedient that two disconnected territories should be under one 
ruler, and thus by tacit or express agreement Dermod remained as chief 
in Ivagha, and his brother Conchobar was elected Chief of Kinelmeky. 

But to return to the history of Muirchertach. It appears that he was 
the first of his race designated by the appellation of Cairbreach,^^ "of 
Carbery,'^ derived most probably from his having been "fostered" in 
Carbery, a part of his territory. There are several instances of names been 
given to Chiefs for a similar reason. When the genealogists of Louis XIV. 
recognised the origin of one of the exiled chiefs as commencing with 
" O'Mahoni de Carbrie, 1220," they must, according to their custom, 
have exacted the production of some historical document (now lost) refer- 
ring to a chieftain who flourished at that date. 

For twenty years the last chieftain of the undivided septland appears to 
have been left undisturbed by his Norman and Irish neighbours, but in 
1232 a great disaster befell him from an unprovoked and treacherous 
attack, for which he was unprepared. This attack is described, with 
strong censure, by the (Bodleian) Innisfallen Annalist: — "a.d. 1232. 
Domhnall Gott Mac Carthaigh was taken prisoner by his own brother, 
Cormac Mac Carthaigh, but he was set at liberty by him at the end of a 
quarter, and immediately after this Domhnall went, at the instance of 
Maghnus O'Cobhthaigh and Fineen O'Muircheartach (O'Moriarty) to 
commit an unneighbourly act against Muirchertach O'Mathghamhna 
(O'Mahony), a thing which he did, for he slew the three sons of 
O'Mathghamhna, and plundered himself, and, in consequence of this, 
Domhnall Cairbreach and his race remained in the South from that forth. "^^ 

•■'S Dunnamaik did not mean " the Marquess's Castle," as the author of the " Pacata 
Hibernia " thought. Dun na mbairc, the fort of the ships (a name formed like Inbher na 
mbairc, Bantry Bay) was a name of much more ancient date than Carew's Castle. 

3"* There is evidence that his great-grandson, another Dermod Mor, married a daughter 
of another Marquess Carew, who, when a widow, married Donal Caomh Mac Carthy 
Reagh. 

35 Mr. McCarthy Glas gives a list of the historical documents, some extant and some 
lost, which were furnished to the French Heralds for the Genealogie de Mac Carthy." 

36 The Dublin "Annals," under date of 1233, have: — "Domhnall Gott Cairbreach 
came to depose O'Mathghamhna and Cobhthaigh to Coill-t-Sealbhaigh, where he fought 
a battle, and slew the three sons of O'Mathghamhna, i.e., the three sons of Donnchadh 
na h-imirce timchill" The authority of this modem compilation cannot be set against 
that of the ancient contemporary Annalist above quoted. It is clearly a blunder to give 



68 THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha, 

The above translation is by Dr. O'Donovan, who gives also the original, 
in the Miscellany of the Celtic Society, 1849, p. 142. But " Fineen 
O'Moriarty" is substituted for "the daughter of Moriarty " on the 
authority of the old English translation (T.C.D. Library) of the Annals by 
Duald Mac Firbis, in whose Irish text was pingin, which in O 'Donovan's 
copy became ingin (a daughter), owing to the initial letter having become 
faipt or obliterated. The old translation appears also to have brought out 
more clearly the force of the last sentence of the original : — " And therefore 
he (Donal Cott) is called Donal Cairbreagh, and his posterity also, for he 
enjoyed the South ever since." In the account of the origin of McCarthy 
Reagh's power in Carbery given by Mr. MacCarthy Glas, with copious 
quotations from Annals and other sources, the above record is omitted. 

The bereaved chieftain died within the following eight years, for he 
must, of course, be the O'Mahony of Carbery referred to in the Annals of 
the Four Masters under the year 1240: — "The Monastery of Timoleague 
was founded for Franciscan Friars by Mac Carthy Reagh, Lord of Carbery, 
and his own tomb was erected in the choir of the Friars. In this Monastery 
also Barrymore, O'Mahony of Carbery, and the Baron Courcy are interred. " 
This entry must be said to refer to a new Church built by Mac Carthy 
Reagh on the site of the old Church of St. Molaga, for the adjoining 
Monastery was, beyond doubt, founded by Lord William Barry, as is clearly 
proved from the Rook of Timoleague in Records of the Barrys, by Rev. 
Edmond Barry.^^ The tomb had doubtless existed in the old Church of St. 
Molaga, whose name, and not the circumstance of a new church, recom- 
mended it as a place of interment. 

We shall now proceed with the history of the Kinelmeky Sept, as the 
Western Clan of Ivagha was an offshoot, though its chiefs were an elder 
branch of their family. 

a different date, to describe O'Coffey as an ally instead of an enemy, and to imply that 
Donnchadh na Himerce, who died in 1212, was alive in 1233. The passage is here given as 
quoted by O'Donovan in his "Genealogy of Corcalaidhe." In other MSS. of the "Dublin' 
Annals," the last clause is omitted. 

''^ Ex Libro Fratrum Minorum de Timolagge : — "Obiit Margeria De Courcey, uxor D. 
Wilbelmi Barry, primi fundatoris hujus Conventus, 1373." This date of course is not the date 
of the foundation, which may have been some forty or fifty years earlier (Harleian MSS., British 
Museum, and Ware's Collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, now classed "Rawlinson, 470"). 
Wadding, who wrote in Italy, had not an opportunity of seeing this record. On this subject 
letters appeared in a local journal last year ; neither of the writers seemed to be aware that the 
question was definitely settled in the "Records of the Barrys," and previously' in Brennan's 
"Eccl. Hist, of Ireland." 

[Addenda et Corrigenda. — One of the earliest references to the Ui Eachach Sept 

(afterwards called after Mahon) and to their fort, Rath Rathleann, is that of Maelmuire 

of Fahan in Donegal, "a poet and erudite historian," according to the Four Masters 
in recording his death in A.D. 884 : — 

" eocu UArhtine ceAti -ojionjA-o 
CAin ctjtA-6, 
eojAriAcc cec "ou 1 cac 
La bjuju tnumAn." 

Translation. 
"The Clan Eochy of Rathlean is without opposition 
Magnificent their apparel, 
Eoghanacht, wherever they are found 
In the land of Munster." 

From an imperfect quotation of the above in Cronnelly, the preseiit writer thought 



THE o'lMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 69 

it referred to the Ui Eachach of Uladh, and therefore omitted it. An inspection of the 
original in Dr. Todd's " Nennius," p. 254, shows clearly that the bard meant the Ui 
Eachach of Munster. 

The " Munster Annals" often quoted by Sir James Ware, and supposed to be lost, 
havf been recently identified by the present writer in an Irish MS. in the R.I. A., mis- 
desciibcd as one of the "copies of the Innisfallen Annals." In it the agreement between 
Biian and Cian after the battle of Bealuch Leachta is given as follows : — Peace was made 
between Brian and Cian, and Brian's daughter was given in marriage to Cian, and the 
tributes of the race of Eogan Mor and his own share of Munster from Carn Thierna 
to Cam Ui Neid, and from Sliabh Caoin to the sea (in the South), and the keeping of 
Cashel and I,och Cur and the island of Loch Saighlin and other fortresses in Munster." 
The compilers of the so-called Dublin Annals of Innisfallen, who draw largely on 
these Annals, omit all the words after " Eoghan Mor," and substitute a supposition of 
their own. See supra p. 53, note. 

It seems probable on reconsideration that the separation of the Septs of Kinelmeky 
and Ivagha did not take place until after 1259, and thus Dermod Mor may have been 
for some years chief of the entire Septland east and west.] 



yo THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 



PART IV. 

KINELMEKY. 

After the voluntary division of the Sept in the middle of the thirteenth 
century, distinctive appellations became necessary for the separated ter- 
ritories and for their chieftains. "It is curious," says Dr. O'Donovan, "to 
remark the whim of custom in applying names to territories. The country 
of the Western O'Mahony retained the tribe name of the vs/hole Sept 
(Ivagha, Ui Eachach), w^hile that of the Eastern O'Mahony received that of 
Cinelmbece (Kinelmeky) from Bee or Bece, an ancestor less remote than 
Eocaidh." (Notes supplied by Dr. O'D. to Prof. Kelly, Ed. of Cam/? ren^is 
Eversus). The chieftain of the Eastern Sept, though sometimes called 
Uise^finA CinexSlmbece, Lord of Kinelmeky, was generally designated 
O m^cjAirinA CxSiiAt)t\eAC in the Annals and Genealogical MSS., " O'Mahon 
or O'Mahony of Carbery," in the English State papers. This recognised 
appellation preserved the memory of the ancient predominance of his 
ancestor in Carbery. His western kinsman, of the elder branch of the 
family, is known in the Annals and other Irish documents as O TDACSArhnxi 
Ar\ "puin l^fvcAfAis or AniAt\tAi|\, i.e., " of the Western Land," and in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as O'Mahon Fionn, i.e., the Fairhaired, 
from an ancestor that succeeded in a.d. 15 13. Whoever prepared the 
Index of O 'Donovan's Ed. of the Four Masters has created some confusion 
by bestowing the territorial designation, "of Carbery," on both chieftains 
indifferently. Cox, in his Regnum Corcagiense," discriminates them and 
their tribe lands by correct appellations: "The best branch was that of 
O'Mahown Fionn (Fune) alias 'Ownyerer,' or of the West, as he resided 
in West Carbery, where he had twelve castles, the principal whereof were 
Ardintenant and Three Castle Head. The other branch was called 
O'Mahown Carbry, and his seat was at Castle Mahon, which was then 
part of Carbry." The name Kinelmeky replaced the older tribal name 
Kinelea as regards the northern and western portions of the territory. 
Kinelea itself had replaced two older appellations, Musgry Mitine, which 
anciently was applied to the eastern and north-eastern portion/ in which 
was the chief's residence, Rath Rathleann, and Carbery, which was the 
name of the southern portion of the district, in which was built Castle 
Mahon, now called Castle Bernard. Dr. O'Brien, in his Irish Dictionary 
(sub voce Carbery), says that "Carbery was anciently a portion of Cor- 
calaidhe (Corcalee), and extended from Bandon to the Mizen Head in the 
west." But it has been shown in the introductory portion of this history 
that Irish writers distinguished not only Corcalee but Ivagha from Car- 
bery. With that correction, Dr. O'Brien's definition of Carbery may be 
accepted. His view that it was originally part of Corcalee is confirmed by 
some place names; for instance, Ballymodan (Bandon), pronounced by 
Irish speakers Ballymudain, is called after the Corcalee family of Mudan. 

1 The Rath lay to the east of Kilbrennan Abbey, which, according to old records 
seen by Colgan and Usner, was in Musgry Mitine. This may also be inferred from 
the Irish Life of St. Finbar, 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 7 I 

VVc have already adopted the opinion oi' the old Irish antiquaries that the 
name Carbery came from Cairbre Riada in the third century, but it is quite 
possible that it may have come from the Corcalee tribe, Ui Carbre, who gave 
a name to Rosscarbery ; or it may have come from Cairbre, one of the chiefs 
of the Ui Eachach, of the Cinel Laeghere branch, who flourished a.d. 580. 
We have proved that the modern conjecture deriving this very ancient 
name from the Carbre Acdha or O'Donovans is utterly untenable, and that 
the extension of the name to the four baronies was an English, not an Irish 
usage. (Supra, vol. xii.. No. 72, p. 183).^ 

Donal Gott Mac Carthy, ancestor of Mac Carthy Reagh, after his un- 
provoked attack on the Sept in 1232, henceforward, says the Innisf alien 
Annalist, assumed the name " Cairbreach," and commenced to "live in 
the South" — that is to say, in that part of the original Kinelmeky which 
lay about Kilbrittain, which De Courcy had probably occupied before a.d. 
1200, and sought to secure by building Kilbrittain Castle, of which Donal, 
or his son Fineen, deprived him. The district occupied included, besides 
Kilbrittain, Rathclarin, Burren, Rathdroutha, Dowagh, which were parts 
uf the Deanery Kinelea Ultra with which Kinelmeky was originally 
identical. After that time there was no further encroachment on Kinelmeky 
by any MacCarthy Reagh, though the district west of Kinelmeky — that is 
to say, from Enniskean to the confines of Ivagha — was seized some time 
between 1260 and 1300. 

After Donal Gott's raid of 1232, peace prevailed between his sept and 
that of the O'Mahons until 1259, when hostilities were renewed by Donal's 
son and successor, Fineen of Ringrone. An unfortunate incident fur- 
nished him with a pretext. Crom O 'Donovan, chief of his name, in 
coming from or going to his own tribeland in West Cork, happened to 
pass by Innisbheil, now Phale, west of Ballineen, and there, becoming 
involved in a squabble with the O'Mahon's herdsmen, he was slain by them. 
(Dublin Annals of Innisfallen, under year a.d. 1254). Though the death 
of O 'Donovan is not attributed by this record to the Chief of Kinelmeky 
(or any of the principal members of his clan), Fineen of Ringrone,^ ever 
eager for a fray, took the opportunity of attacking him, possibly at the 
request of O 'Donovan's successor. The Bodleian Annalist of Innisfallen 
records that in the skirmish that ensued " Macraith O'Mahon and several 
other nobles (maite) were killed. " Macraith was the eldest son of Dermod, 
who, as we have said, was the first chief of the western Sept. The (Dublin) 
Annalist says that Dermod himself was slain, and that this event occurred 
in 1254. But it is not credible that the original Annalist would fail to 
record the death of a chief, while recording the death of his son. We 
prefer, as in previous pages, to follow both as to the facts and the date, 
the contemporary Annalist rather than the compiler of a.d. 1765. 

As Innisbheil or Phale is at a considerable distance beyond the boundary 

2 To what is there said it may be added that Dr. O'Donovan adopted the opinion 
(vol. ii. Four Masters, p. 934) that "The O'Donovans were finally expulsed from Hy 
Fidhgente in Co, Limerick in 1229." O'Mahon had the name Carbreach in 1220, and 
Donal Gott assumed it in 1232. 

3 Mr. Mac Carthy (Glas), in his " Mac Carthys of Glennachroim," says that Fineen 
was influenced by the circumstance that Crom was his foster brother. This is a baseless 
conjecture. Dr.' O'Donovan, who put together every ancient reference to Crom, says 
nothing about this ; neithei does any Annalist. 



72 THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

of Kinelmeky, it is probable that the district extending on to the west 
from Phaie to Drimoleague had not ceased to belong to the Kinelmeky 
Sept before the conflict above mentioned, nor perhaps for some time 
after. The statement that Gleannchroim,* which nearly coincided with 
the parish of Fanlobbus, was before this time in the possession of Crom 
O 'Donovan, rests on no authority but the unsupported assertion of John 
Collins, of Myross, in his Pedigree of the O' Donovans, a compilation 
abounding in errors, and completely discarded by Dr. O'Donovan in his 
account of that clan even in the more recent period of the i6th century. 
This particular assertion of Collins ^ is discredited by his representing 
Crom O'Donovan as living in a.d. 1120, and possessing Gleannchroim 
before his tribe removed from the Co. Limerick. Dr. O'Brien's account 
(see ante, p. 78) is that the tribe passed over Mangerton and entered West 
Cork, and obtained land from the tribes there by " the powerful assistance 
of the O'Mahonys," who certainly would not help them to obtain Gleann- 
chroim, which was their own,*^ being between the traditional boundaries 
"Cork and the Mizen Head." Collins was influenced by a mistaken 
derivation of the place-name Gleann Chroim. But, as Dr. Joyce observes, 
" the name Crom (genitive Chruim and Chroim) enters into the composition 
of numerous words." It would be strange if it did not, as Crom (Cruach) 
was the chief idol of Pagan Ireland. Thus we find Domnach Chroim, the 
name of a Sunday in summer coinciding with a Pagan festival, and Cluain 
Chruim in Westmeath, " the mead of Crom," &c. , &c. Crom as an adjec-. 
tive also helps to form compounds, as Cruimgleann, a winding glen 
(Dinneen's Irish Diet.), from which word most probably Gleann chroim 
originated, the place of the adjective being reversed, as happened in the 
progress of the language in numerous instances as Dubh-abhainn and 
Abhain-dubh, Dubh gaill and Gaill-dubh, Ma'an Innis and Innis Ma'an. 

East Muskerry ceased to belong to the Chief of Raithleann, descendant 
of Mahon, when De Cogan In about 1177 succeeded in seizing Dun 
Draighneain, the site of Castlemore, but West Muskerry, or a district of 
it comprising the parishes of Kilmichael, Kilmurry, and part of Moviddy, 
and containing sixty-three ploughlands, was retained for more than another 
century. The proof of this statement is that there were three divisions 
of the district, Clan Fineen, Clan Cnogher, and Ui Flon Lua, the two 
former being called after the grandsons of Dermod Mor and his brother, 
and the third allocated to the great-grandson of the former. From the 
genealogical list, it Is plain that these allocations must have been made 
after a.d. 1300, and they could not be made then, if the district had passed 
out of the possession of the Chief of Kinelmeky. 

4 The name Gleannchroim does not occur in any Irish MS. We have adopted the 
spelling given by Florence Mac Carthy Reagh in his letters. The name Cluaincruim is 
erroneously translated by Dr. Joyce. 

5 Collins lacked "the historic sense," and was more at home in poetry. His splendid 
poem on Timoleague Abbey made an impression on Clarence Mangan and Sir S. Fer-- 
guson, both of whom gave an English translation of it. 

6 Windele has the following statement, which is a traditional' account, not in any 
of the hitherto known records, and not free from anachronisms, but which may have some 
foundation in fact: — "An O'Mahony (whom he calls Cian) endowed his daughter, the 
w^ife of O'Coghlan, with one hundred ploughlands in Fanlobbus ; O'Coghlan gave these 
ploughlands (recte thirty-two) to Diarmuid O'Crowley, whose three sons were O'Crowley 
Buidhe, O'Crowley Bacach, and O'Crowley Reagh." Windele MSS., R. I. Acad. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 73 

East Muskerry, on the death of De Cogan in 1182, passed into the 
possession of what was afterwards known as the Blarney branch of the 
iVIac Carthys, but they were unable to annex the West Muskerry district 
until they broug-ht down from Donegal a portion of the Mac Sweeney 
galloglasses (between a.u. 1310 and 1320), who received for their services 
lands, on which they built the castles of Cloghdha and Mashanaglas/ 
But the three families or minor septs, above mentioned, continued (.as we 
shall show) as freeholders, subject to a small head rent, down to the con- 
fiscations of 1642. 

Thus, at the end of the first quarter of the fourteenth century the 
authority of the Chief of Kinelmeky did not extend beyond the boundaries 
of the barony that at present bears that name. It is described in an 
Inquisition of A.D. 1586 as "twelve miles in length," and within it were 
the parishes of Templemartin, Kilbrogan, Kilowen, and parts of Bally- 
modan, Brinny, Murragh, and Desertserges. Its sixty-three ploughlands 
contained nearly thirty-six thousand acres, estimated as twenty-eight 
thousand, without measurement, at the time of the confiscation. From 
the fertility of the soil, it must have been capable of maintaining a larger 
population than some of the western tribelands that had nominally a much 
larger number of ploughlands. It was described by Lord Burleigh in 1578 
as "a proper territory," and the very same words were used, with more 
minute details, giving evidence of its fertility, about ten years afterwards 
by Robert Payne, ^ an agent of the undertakers, in a small book or pamphlet 
that he wrote about the confiscated territories. In a Government return, 
of 1659, of the "profitable" and "unprofitable" acres of the different 
baronies, the "unprofitable portion of this barony was set down as mZ."^ 

From the time of the division into the Eastern and Western Septs, for 
over three centuries, Kinelmeky was a Celtic outpost. From the junction 
of the Brinny river with the Bandon, one might travel almost in a direct 
line to Mitchelstown and the Galtees, and look in vain for a single Irish 
tribe. 

In the earlier portion of the thirteenth century the Norman invaders 
began to systematically build castles to secure their acquisitions and facili- 
tate further aggression. It was the advice of Giraldus "to imitate the 
example of Turges and his Ostmen, and sow Ireland with castles so situated 

7 This is the received opinion, but in the " Munster Annals" above quoted there is an 
entry under 1237 : "Cormac Fionn, son of Donal Mor na Curra Mac Carthy, died in his 
Castle of Mashanaglas." It may have been afterwards rebuilt. This entry shows the 
early date at which the Irish chiefs had begun to build castles, after the Norman 
invasion. 

8 The full title is " A brief description of Ireland to XXV. of his partners for whom 
he is undertaker, by Robert Payne, A.D. 1590," edited by Dr. Aquila Smith, and pub- 
lished in vol. ii. of "Tracts relating to Ireland." He complains of the dishonest con- 
duct of the English "midertakers" to those whom they enticed over from England to 
occupy the confiscated estates. He says that owing to the fruitfulness of the soil of 
Kinelmeky, Beecher got more tenants than any two in Munster. 

9 Boyle (Earl of Cork) describes all the district near Bandon as " a mere waste of 
wood and bog serving as a retreat tor wood kerns, rebels, thieves, and wolves." Cox 
has transcribed and adopted this account, so totally at variance with the above quoted 
authorities. Much change could not have been effected between 1619 and 1659. It was 
a favourite trick of the unveracious Boyle to represent the lands he acquired as worthless. 
See in Gibson's "Hist of Cork" (vol. ii., pp. 31 and 37) his attempt to persuade Sir 
Walter Raleigh's son that the lands of his father (Sir Walter), which Boyle had contrived 
to acquire for a trifle, were all " utterly waste and yielded him no profit." 



74 THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

that their occupants could assist each other." In 1215 ^" (O'Donovan's 
note, Antials of Four Masters) a large number of castles had been erected 
in Munstcr, especially on the southern coast. It must soon have become 
apparent to the Chief of Kinelmeky that a primitive fort such as Rath 
Rathleann, the headquarters of the chiefs, his ancestors, for so many cen- 
turies, would not aftord protection in case of a Norman invasion of the ter- 
ritory, and that a stronghold of the new type should be provided without 
delay. Hence we may conclude that Castle Lac (CxMfle^n r\A teACCxi) 
must have been built not very long after 12 15. About a mile and a half 
south of Rath Rathleann a site was selected adjoining the small plain which 
has been shown (supra p. 18) to have been the battlefield on which the 
victory was gained over the Danes in 1089. Windele, who visited the 
place in 1856, writes: — "To the west of the standing stones is the site 
of the castle which gives its present name to the place in conjunction with 
the Leachts. The ruins are low, and form almost a mound so as to present 
few features of the castellated structure. It was a solitary square tower, 
and from the dimensions it would seem to have been a ' peel house ' (or 
'peel tower'). It was erected in an ancient fort which has survived it in 
its moat and rampart. "^^ The old structure had been used as a quarry 
when a mill was built in its vicinity towards the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. Castle Mahon was more recent than Castle Lac, and was of a much 
better type; the exact date of its erection is not known, but it cannot have 
been later than a.d. 1400, as the necessity for a castle south of the Bandon 
River must have been felt in the troublous days of the preceding century. 
We may readily believe that in that period of intense aggression on the 
part of the grantees of Henry the Second's Charter and of their 
representatives, the clan did not preserve its existence without much hard 
fighting. In 1359 the son of a chieftain, Tadhg, who from his place in the 
Genealogical Table must have flourished at that date, fell in battle, doubt- 
less against some invader of the tribeland, according to the entry in the 
Annals of Loch Ce : — " Donal Mac Tadhg O'Mahouna occisus est. "^^ 

Barry Og, lord of Kinelea (separated from Kinelmeky by the river 
Mughin or Brinny river) had, or claimed to have, a piece of parchment 
giving him a title to Kinelmeky. The " title" ^^ was obtained from De 
Courcy as the representative of De Cogan, who was authorised by Henry 
II. to rob, if he could, the native proprietors of " one moiety of the kingdom 
of Cork." In Smith's History of Cork mention is made of an Inquisition 

10 Castles were built in Ireland long before the Normans came. An O'Connor of 
Connacht was called " Tadhg of the three towers" in 954, and his grandson, "Tadhg of 
the Tower" in 1009. In 1124 three castles were built (Annals Four M.), and besides 
there was "Hags Castle" in Lough Mask, which still exists. The original Norman castles 
or "Peel Towers," with an entrance door to the first floor, were places of refuge not much 
differing, for that purpose, from the Round Towers of Ireland. 

11 Windele on the same occasion visited Rath Rathleann, without being able to 
identify it as Cian's Fort, but he inferred from its great size that it was a Riogh Rath or 
Royal Rath. He did not happen to meet local shanachies who could tell him *he tradi- 
tions about the Rath and Castle Lac. 

12 The Annals Four Masters have two entries — one that Donal "died," the other 
that he "was killed." The latter is confirmed by the Annals of Loch Ce. 

13 See "Records of the Barrys" by Rev. E. Barry, who shows that De Courcey claimed 
a head rent from Barry Og as his feudal superior. In an Inquisition dated 1373, Milo 
De Courcey is set down as the owner of Kinelea, held by Philip Fitzwilliam Barry, 
The Barry Og. (Rotulorum patent, et claus, Cal., Dublin, 1828.) 



THE o'mAHONYS of KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 75 

held after the death of WiUiam De Barry, among- whose possessions, held 
from Ue Courcy, are set down Kinelmeky and Ifflanloe (Ui Flon Lua in 
West Muskerry), But neither in Kinelmeky nor in Ifflanloe was any of the 
line of Barry Og able to acquire a foothold. Indeed the Kinelmeky Sept 
cannot have found the Kinelea pretender a formidable opponent, as the 
Barry Og of 1578, who had the same resources as his predecessors, is 
described by Lord Burleigh as a "poor beggarly Captayne of the land 
between Cork and Kinsale, called Kynoley" (Kinelea). 

In the year 1400, if not somewhat earher, Ihe Connacht bard O'Heerin ^^ 
composed his topographical poem descriptive of the numerous tribelands 
of Leath Mogha, as Leinstcr and Munster were then called. To obtain the 
information oral and written that he required for surh an exhaustive 
description he must, of course, have made the circuit of the two provinces. 
As he died in 1420 {Annals F. M.) at an advanced age, as O'Reilly dis- 
covered, we may fairly fix on 1400 as about the latest year in which he 
would be physically capable of such a laborious peregrination. We are 
not to suppose that in this circuit he visited all tribe lands, for he describes 
some of them vaguely and some erroneously. But the minutely accurate 
description that he gave of Kinelmeky suggests that he wrote from actual 
observation : — 

CineL ni-l)ece ^n puinii ev\l*iis 
Itnon tDx^n'o^m in-bAin-pe^'o-Aij 
'Pex\f Af CxXUlib^-ObA on ITIuxMX) HI if. 
O m^AusA^mn^ -An Cu-Ain chuipgit. 

Translation (Dr. Donovan). 

".Cinel mBece the land of cattle 
Around the Bandon of fair woods 
A most warlike man from the rapid Muaidh 
Is O'Mahouna of the harbour of white foam." 

The territory is here described as on "both sides" of the Bandon, 
"of fair woods" — an epithet anticipating Spenser's "crowned with many 
a wood" — and the river opens out not far beyond the eastern boundary 
into " the harbour of white foam." He does not omit to notice the small 
river Muaidh, since known by its diminutive form Muaidhin (pr. Muaghin, 
written by Smith Mughin), which is the eastern boundary of Kinelmeky. 
These are minute descriptive touches. He shows that he was aware that 
there was another Sept of the name in the west, about which he has also a 
quatrain. 

In this connection it will be convenient to mention some place names in 
the tribeland that preserve the memory of some ancestors of the Sept. 
The principal place-name is, of course, Kinelmeky itself, the spelling of 
which, in Irish, is correctly given in O'Heerin's quatrain. With refer- 
ence to Smith's attempted derivation, which Bennett repeated, Dr. 
O'Donovan^^ writes: — "Nothing can be more erroneous than Smith's 

14 Topographical Poems of O'Dugan and O'Heerin, Ed., J. O'Donovan, LL.D., 1862. 

15 In a letter to Dr. Aquila Smith (Editor of Payne's work, above quoted), who had 
asked for information as to the derivation of the place name. 



76 THE o'mAHONYS of KINELMEKY and IVAGHAi 

derivation of the name in his History of Cork. It is taken altogether from 
the English spelling, and shows that he never saw the word in the original 
Irish. The genealogy of the O'Mahonys is traced up from Conn, son of 
Diarmuid Mor of Ivagha (1320) through twenty-four generations 
to Bee (or Bece), in the seventh century." Cox thus alludes 
to two other well-known place names : — " From this Kean (Cian, 
father of Mahon) was called Enniskean, and from Droghid i 
Mahoun Bandon Bridge" {Regnum Corcagiense). Droghid Ui 
Mahouna, " O'Mahon's bridge," was also called by Irish speakers 
"An droighid," The Bridge, a name indicating the great rarity 
of bridges at the time it was built. Curravreeda, "the enclosure of the 
hostages," carries us back (as also does Lisbanree) to the ninth and tenth 
centuries; Gurteen O'Mahon is still the name of a townland, and another 
is called Gurteen Conogher Og in some title deeds of the seventeenth 
century. 

The Lords of Kinsale might be supposed to be interested in Barry 
Og's pretensions, as they were his feudal superiors. Nevertheless between 
them and the Kinelmeky Chieftains no dissension appears to have arisen 
after the twelfth century, and about 1450 there was a connection by mar- 
riage. In Lodge's Peerage (Archdall's Edition) we find the following 
(s. V. Kingsale, Baron): — "Nicholas De Couroey, twelfth Baron of Kin- 
sale, married Mor^^^ daughter of O'Mahon, chief of his sept and descended 
from Core, King of Munster. " This O'Mahon was Donal (son of Dermod, 
and ninth in descent from Donogh Na Himerce O'M.), whom Duald Mac 
Firbis, in his Book of Munster, sets down as a contemporary of his western 
cousin, Donogh O'M., Chief of Ivagha. As the latter succeeded in 1427 
(the date of his father's death, Annals Four M.), and died in 1473 {Annals 
of Loch Ce), we can thus determine the time of Donal of Kinelmeky. In 
the above quotation from Lodge's Peerage we have substituted the true 
name, Mor, for Lodge's "Maurya," a female name not in use in the 
fifteenth century in Ireland. Dr. O'Donovan says: — "Mor was the 
name of many ladies in Elizabeth's time. In our own times it has been 
almost invariably Anglicised Mary, with which it is neither synonymous 
or cognate." (Preface to O'Dugan and O'Heerin). The twelfth Lord 
Kinsale died in 1474, and the following obit is taken from the Liber 
Fratrum Minorum de Timolagge : — ' ' Ob. Nich. De Couroey suae nationis 
caput, vir Praeclarus." James, his son and successor, died in 1499, 
according to another obit of the same book. These extracts are found 
in Ware's Collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (classed Rawlinson 

479)- 

In view of the long array of ancient records that have been set forth 
in the course of this History from the sixth century down to O'Heerin's 
circuit in a.d. 1400, showing that Kinelmeky, named after their ancestor, 
was the cradle and the home of the O'Mahony Sept, it is unnecessary to 
notice at all Bennett's statement in his History of Bandon (first Ed.) that 
the Sept "came originally from Carbery, and intruded, about the year 
1460, on Kinelmeky, which then belonged to the English Crown, and 
gavp half of it to Mac Carthy Reagh for his assistance." But it may be 

18 The name " Mor " is contained in the Kinelmeky place-name Curravordy, " the 
house of dark Mor " (co|i AX) ttl6i|i -oviibe). , 




Battlefield of Caislean na Leachta (a.d. 1088.) 

(Square Rath, on which are remains of Castle, in background.) 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. ']'] 

of interest to show what kind of history was manufactured about Irish 
tribes in the time of Elizabeth. That falsehood was doubtless suggested 
by the appellation " Carbery " or "of Carbery" attached to the name of 
the chief — an appellation misunderstood by those who were unacquainted 
with the peculiarities of Irish nomenclature, and unaware that Kinelmeky, 
on its western side, included a portion of the territory known from ancient 
times as "Carbery." \\'hcn preparing for his second edition, Bennett 
had some perception of the absurdity of the statement he had so un- 
critically received, and sought to modify it into a less extravagant asser- 
tion, viz., that the Clan had been dislodged from Kinelmeky, their ancient 
patrimony, and retui'ned to it 1460. But that is not the assertion of the 
authority that he followed, the Inquisition held in Cork in 1584, as quoted 
in Cox's History of Ireland, p. 383. The English colonists of Cork, who 
were the "Juratores" in that Inquisition, meant to say that 
" O'Mahown Carbry" began to occupy Kinelmeky for the first time in 
the above-mentioned year. Having put forward this unhistorical state- 
ment, they then proceeded to stultify themselves by deciding that, never- 
theless, Conogher, the Chief who fell in the Desmond Insurrection, was 
owner of (not half but) the whole Barony of Kinelmeky, having somehow 
acquired a valid title to land that 120 years before was "the ancient 
inheritance of the Crown." They were as ignorant of English Law as of 
the history of the Irish tribe, or they would have known that their law 
recognised no "acquisitive prescription of land" that was known to have 
belonged to another even in the previous century. 

Their "history" was adopted by none of their contemporaries. Two 
years afterwards it was completely ignored at the Youghal Inquisition 
(held regarding the same Chief and other participators in the Insurrection), 
which simply decided that Conogher O'Mahony "died seized of the fee 
of the Barony of Kinelmeky." The decision was, of course, unjust to the 
members of the Clan, who held land by the same right as their Head, 
but it clearly Implied that the Chief held by unbroken and immemorial pos- 
session. Four years afterwards, Bishop Lyon, In a letter which will pre- 
sently be quoted at greater length, wrote that the Sept of the 
" O'Mahownles " were "ancient In Kinelmeky as Mac Carthy Reagh in 
Carbery." In the numerous State papers about Kinelmeky between 1584 
and 1600, no notice at all is taken of the alleged "Intrusion on Crown 
Land In 1460," though, if provable. It would summarily dispose of all 
the points raised against the confiscation and transfer to Beecher. ^^ 

The fact Is that pages might be filled with the mis-statements made 

1'' The text of the Inquisition, given by Cox, is as follows : — " That Kinelmeky was 
the ancient inheritance of the Crown, and Barry Og (Farmer of it — i.e., lessee) paid 
the rent to the Exchequer ; that O'Mahown Carbry intruded on it, and gave Mac 
Carthy Reagh half for protection. That Conogher O'Mahown was slain in the Earl 
of Desmond's rebellion, and died seized of the Seignory of Kinelmeky." The con- 
coctors of the above did not know that Barry Og derived his claim to all that he 
possessed, or pretended to, from De Courcey, Lord Kinsale ; that therefore he held no 
right " from the Crown," and paid no rent to the Exchequer. The fnlsehood about the 
division of Kinelmekv is easily shown by compaiing the present Kinelmeky with the 
Deanery of " Kinelea Ultra," already d-escribed. As has been stated in a previous page 
there was no change in the area of Kinelmeky since the time of Donal Gott Mac Carthy 
1232. Mac Carthy Reagh, in his letter to the Privy Council, 1588, so far from endorsing 
the " history " given in the Inquisition, subverts its fundamental assertion about the 
"ancient inheritance of the Crown." 



78 THE o'mahonvs of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

about the past history of Irish tribes by English colonists in the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries. Thus, the citizens of Cork, in a doleful letter 
written in 1449 to the Lord Deputy, inform him that "all the Irish of 
the South had been driven into the valley of Glennahought, between two 
great mountains, and there they lived many years as best they could with 
their white meats, until the English Lords fell at variance with one 
another," and then the Irish returned to their tribelands ! Camden, fol- 
lowed by a writer of the Herald Office in 1600, asserted that it was " from 
Carew the O'Mahons received their land of Ivagha " — which has been 
proved to have been in possession of their ancestors four centuries before 
Carew's time. Spenser^* believed that the Mac Mahons and Mac 
Sweenys were descendants of Englishmen, Fitzurses and De Veres, who 
translated their names into Irish. Davies wrote that when the English 
took possession of the Pale all the Irish were expelled — a statement that 
Hardiman easily disproves, the fact being that the Irish retook possession 
of much of the original "Pale." Davies also asserts that no Irish chiefs 
built castles until they renounced Tanistry and adopted the English 
tenure — that is, that they built none until the i6th century ! Only a very 
uncritical writer would think of making use of such authorities as the 
foregoing at the present time, when "criticism of one's sources" is re- 
garded as the first duty of a historian. 

The successor of Donal was his son Dermod Spdineach, "The 
Spanish," so called in the genealogies, as having* served in his youth in 
the Spanish army, for some time, during that eventful period of the war 
with the Moors. Dermod 's successor was his son Finghin. Towards 
the close of the century the Annals of Loch Ce have an entry under the 
year 1492 of the death of Finghin — " -pingin O ITlAtjArhnA -065." This 
is, of course, the entry of a chieftain's death, and the date distinguishes 
him from the contemporary Finghin "of the Western Land," who, 
according to the same Annals and the Four Masters, lived until 1496. 

In the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. "the country," says 
Mr. Gibson, ^^ "all but passed out of the hands of the English Monarch." 
There is no exaggeration in this statement. In the London State Paper 
Office there is a report of the state of Ireland compiled in the year 1515;, 
which shows that the Pale had dwindled to portions of five counties, in 
which, moreover, the majority of the inhabitants were Irish. It proceeds 
to say that the greater part of Ireland was in the hands of the "Irish 
enemy," and divided into "sixty regions, some as large as shires, some 
more, some less, under a many captaynes, who obey no temporal person 
but him who is strong" — which the English King was not, as Surrey, a 
Lord Lieutenant in 1520, informed him in plain language. The report 
commences with the "regions and captaynes of Mounster," and 
beginning with Mac Carthy More, it mentions "O'Mahunde of Fousheragh 
(Fonn lartharach, Ivagha), Chief Captayne of his nation," and 
"O'Mahund of Kynalmeke, Chief Captayne of his nation." "Nation" 
was but another name for sept ; there was no Irish nation in the modern 
sense of the term. The writer of the report shows how incomplete was 

18 Spenser, in his "View of the State of Ireland," accepts the Cork letter of 1449 ^^ 
a trustworthy record. 

19 Hist, of Cork, vol. i., p. 112. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 79 

the knowledge that English officials had of the Southern tribes, for he 
omitted to make mention of O'Sullivan Mor, O'Donoghue of the Glens, 
O'Donovan, O'Kecffe, and Mac Auliffe. The name "Irish Enemy" used 
in the report, as in all previous Acts of the Parliament of the Pale, was 
an accurately descriptive term, but, not long afterwards, the officials of 
the English Crown began to substitute for it the appellation of "rebels 
and traitors." The use of those names involved the arrogant assumption 
that those of the Irish who (like the two Septs whose history is here given) 
did not welcome an extension of English rule, owed, somehow, allegiance to 
a foreign king, too weak to perform the fundamental duty of keeping order, 
and disposed, like his predecessors, to carry out, if he got strong enough, 
the wholesale spoliation projected by Henry II. 

The English power had considerably increased in 1541, not so much 
through any military successes as through dissensions in Munster. In 
that year the Lord Deputy St. Leger was sent over with special instruc- 
tions to get the Irish Chiefs and Anglo-Irish nobles to acknowledge Henry 
Vm. as their "natural and liege lord" and as "supreme head of the 
Church in England and Ireland." In pursuance of his mission, St. Leger 
came to Cork, and his summons was obeyed by the three Barrys, five 
Irish Chiefs of the Co. Cork, and two of Kerry, who, if the Indenture 
given in Cox's History be authentic,-" subscribed their names to the De- 
claration required of them. The Chief of Kinelmeky did not attend, 
neither did Connor Fionn, the head of the kindred Sept of Ivagha, nor 
his neighbours O'Driscoll and O'Donovan. 

In 1 55 1, as a State Paper informs us, when the Earl of Desmond 
visited the new Lord Deputy Crofts in Dublin, he found that the latter 
had resolved to call before him the Earl's son and Maurice, the Earl's 
brother "for preys taken from the O'Mahons," i.e., from those of Kinel- 
meky, which was easily invaded from Kerricurrihy, a Desmond posses- 
sion, whereas the Western O'Mahons were practically inaccessible. The 
Lord Deputy cared little about the interests of an Irish tribe which had 
shown no loyalty, but it was a matter of State policy not to allow attacks 
to be made without permission on the "Irish enemy," and an Act of Par- 
liament had been passed to that effect. For over three centuries, but 
especially since 1487, the Earls of Desmond and their immediate relatives 
had been harassing and plundering the Irish of South Munster, not, how- 
ever, with impunity, for they were often repulsed ^^ with great slaughter. 
Thomas Davis, in his splendid but unhistorical poem on "The Geraldines," 
has thrown a glamour over the whole line of ruthless marauders, on 
account of the part taken by James Fitzmaurice, Earl Garret, and the 
" Sugan" Earl in the national movement in the time of Elizabeth. 

In 1568 Sir Peter Carew came over from England to prosecute his 

20 Doubts have been expressed as to the authenticity of the clause in the Indenture 
acknowledging Henry as Head of the Church m Ireland, and discarding expressly the 
authority of the Pope. See " Records of the Barrys " on this point. It is certain that 
all the signatories (and their sons who succeeded them) lived and died members of the 
Catholic Church, and were never accused of having renounced their Creed. 

21 As at Mourne Abbey in 1520 by Mac Carthy of Muskerry, at Innishannon in 1560 
by Turlough Mac Sweeny and his gallowglasses in the pay of Mac Carthy Reagh, and 
in 1564, when Maurice, "the Freebooter," or Maurice Dubh, brother of the Earl, was 
killed in one of his forays in Muskerry. Mr. Gibson gives a good account of the in- 
cessant forays of the Desmond branch of the Geraldines, 



So THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

claim to " one half of the Kingdom of Cork" as heir to Fitzstephen, one of 
the grantees of the Charter of Henry II. He produced a forged roll,- 
which was received as evidence setting forth that " Fitzstephen 's moiety 
contained Imokilly, Tyr Barry (Barry's country), Tyr Courcey (Courcey's 
country), Muskerry, Kinelmeky, Carbery, Ivagha, and the countries of 
O'Driscoll and O'Donovan," with some other districts in Kerry. "The 
corrupt Government of the day," says O'Donovan, ^^ "allowed the 
ludicrous claim — the claim of a collateral branch to be heirs of a bastard — 
in order to frighten the Earl of Desmond and the Irish chiefs." We hear 
nothing about the progress of his case until 1575. Cox, who carefully 
avoids stating whether there was any decision given in favour of Carew or 
not, relates that in 1575 " Sir Peter sent his agent, John Hooker, to Cork, 
where he had a solemn meeting with Mac Carthy Reagh, Cormac Mac 
Teig of Muskerry, Barry Og, O'Mahon, O'Driscoll, and others, and that 
they made this proposal to him, that they would advance three thousand 
kine with sheep, hogs and corn proportionable for the present ; and that if 
Sir Peter would live among them they would pay a rent that would be 
reasonable ; whereupon Hooker took a house for Sir Peter at Cork and 
another in Kinsale, but as Sir Peter was going that way he died in Wex- 
ford, Nov. 1575." Cox's account has been transcribed and adopted by 
Smith and Gibson in their County Histories. It may be that those chief- 
tains resolved to submit to the inevitable. But it was certainly not 
credible that they displayed such abject servility as to stipulate that the 
man who came to carry out the long-deferred spoliation arranged by 
Henry II. should do them the favour of living among them. We can now 
compare Cox's narration, derived apparently from hearsay, with that of 
a first hand authority, the agent Hooker himself, whose original MS. has 
been published by Mr. MacLean in his Life of Sir P. Carew. Hooker, 
alias Vowell, says: — "And forthwith they all, the Lord Courcey, Lord 
Barry Oge, McArthy Riogh, the O'Mahons, McSweyne, O'Driscoll, 
O'Daly and sundry did conclude with this agent that they would submit 
their lands to Sir P. Carew and take same at a reasonable rent. And for 
that that was past they would give 3,000 kine, which they accounted to 
be one year's rent of the lands they did hold. The Earl of Desmond, the 
Lord Courcey, the Lord Roch, and Sir Cormac Mac Teig pretended great 
joy at Sir Peter's coming to live among them," but before any rent was 
paid Sir Peter died of a short and painful illness. But a serious objec- 
tion may be raised against the agent's narrative. If there was such a 
compact as he mentions, it would have been duly reduced to writing, 
and could have been enforced by Sir George Carew, when he became his 
brother's heir on the death of his nephew at the skirmish of Glenmalure. 
He has never been considered to be so indifferent to his own interests as 
to be capable of renouncing such a vast income. If Lord Courcey took 
part in that compact with the agent, then the title deeds by which Cogan 
was said to have conveyed Courcey's Country and Kinelea to his ancestor 
are clearly proved to be mythical. 

The O'Mahon at this date, and for some years previously, was Finghin 
(Fineen), son of Maolmuadh, who appears to have succeeded his brother 
Cian by Tanist law. He was married to a sister of Mac Carthy Reagh. 

32 Annals Four M., vol. v., p. 1,738 note, where there is reference to the forged roll. 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 8 1 

His name in the Latinized form, " Florentius O'Mahowney de O'Mahoone- 
Castlc, gen. |ero.sus]," occurs in the " Inquisition held after the death of 
Sir Dono^^h Mac Carthy Reagh," written in the " Law Latin " of the time, 
in June, 1576. In 1575, when Sir Henry Sidney, the conciUatory Lord 
Deputy, took up his residence in Cork for six weeks, he was visited by 
the Southern Chiefs generally, even by those who had made no declaration 
of allegiance, and had no intention of renouncing their status and adopting 
the English tenure. He wrote an account of his visitors, by many of 
whom he was favourably impressed, and he was considering a plan for 
attaching to the English Crown, by a distribution of titles, " those of 
them not yet nobilitated. " His letter may be seen, in extenso, in Gibson's 
History uf Cork, vol. i., p. 226. After mentioning several of the Irish 
"who in respect of their lands might pass as Barons in England or Ire- 
land," he continues : — " O'Kyffe and Mac Fynnen, and the sons and heirs 
of Mac Auly and O'Callaghan, the old men not being able to come by 
reason of age. O'Mahon and O'DriscoU,^^ each of them, have land enough, 
with good order -* to live like a Baron here or there. Of those descended 
of the English race Sir James Fitzgerald, &c. , &c. " It appears that only 
one of the O'Mahons attended, and it is impossible to determine which 
of the two is referred to in the above extract. Certain it is that neither 
of them, as their subsequent history shows, was influenced by a desire of 
obtaining an English title. Two years afterwards O'Mahon of Carbery 
was engaged in some proceeding which brought him into collision with 
the English Government, but the nature of which is not set forth in the 
Calendar of State Papers. In the record of the Fiants, 1577, we find : — 
"Pardon to Owen McCarthy Reagh, of Kilbrittain ; Donal Mac Carthy, 
of Kilgobbin ; Florence O'Mahowne, called O'Mahown Carberie, and 
Dermot O'Mahowne, of same place." In the same year, Fiant No. 3,039 
has the following: — "O'Mahowne Carberie is suitor for the pardon of 
twenty-five of his men." 

This is the proper occasion for exposing two mis-statements and mis- 
quotations of Mr. Bennett, in his History of Bandon. "When Sir H. 
Sidney," he says, "visited Cork in 1575, one of those who visited him was 
O'Mahony, whom he represents as 'a man of small force, though a proper 
country.'" He found no such passage in Sir H. Sidney's letter. It 
occurs in a letter of Lord Burleigh's, in which also is found a depreciatory 
reference to Barry Og, quoted in a former page, and a querulous dis- 
paragement of several heads of Septs. But what would Burleigh call 
"a small force"? Mr. Bennett proceeds to make the description definite 
and precise : — "The chief of Castle-Mahon was not a powerful chief, 
for .... it is recorded that his forces were twenty-six horse and one 
hundred and twenty kerne." Now this is a mere invention. There is no 
such record in the State Papers or histories of the time. Bennett had no 
hesitation about supplying the want. He saw in a report of Carew's that 

23 Dr. W. A. Copingjer, in his notes to the new Ed. of Smith's Cork (vol. ii. of 
this Journnl, p. 162), professes to give Sir H. Sidney's letter, and transcribes it ac- 
curately until he comes to the name " O'Driscoll," after which he places a full stop, 
and without any indication of omission, suppresses what follows in the same sentence 
and passes on to " Of those descended from the English," &c. Any such manipulation of 
historical domments should be discountenanced, even in matters of no ofreat- importance. 

24 Mr. Gibson does not say from what original he quoted ; the Calendar of Carew 
MSS. has "to live like a knight." 





82 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

the Western O'Mahon had seventy-two horse and two hundred and twenty 
kerne, but that under that chief's immediate command there were "twenty- 
six horse and one hundred and twenty kerne," the remainder being mus- 
tered by his cousin and subordinate, O'Mahon of Brin (Rossbrin). The 
"twenty-six horses and one hundred and twenty kerne" the historian 
transfers from the west and assigns to the Chief of Kinelmeky. This in- 
genious method of manufacturing history is hardly calculated to inspire 
his readers with confidence in his other statements and quotations. We 
will show in a subsequent page that the Clan, though weakened by its 
losses in the Desmond war, was able in 1601 to muster three hundred 
fighting men at about two hours' notice. 

Fineen died in the beginning of 1579, leaving four sons, Conogher, 
his successor, and three others, to whom he bequeathed the three plough- 
lands which constituted the parish of Killowen. 

Conogher O'Mahony succeeded to the chieftainship at the early age of 
twenty-three (as tradition tells) in the troubled and eventful year 1579. 
He was not, as the phrase ran, the " eldest and the best man of the blood," 
who usually succeeded almost as a matter of course, but he was eligible 
according to Tanist Law, and either his own personal qualities, 
or his deceased father's popularity in the Clan, secured his succession. 
In 1579, after the death of Sir James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, the Earl of 
Desmond, after some vacillation, put himself at the head of the movement 
against Elizabeth, initiated and organised by his deceased kinsman. It 
has been called the Desmond "Rebellion," but from the point of view 
of the Irish Chiefs who took part in it, it was simply a continuation or 
renewal of the warfare that had for centuries been waged between the 
foreign invaders and the "Irish enemy," to whom an additional stimulus had 
been supplied by the enforcement of the persecuting Statute of 1559. Some 
nobles and heads of Septs did not openly take up arms, but all, without 
exception, ^^ actively sympathised with the insurrection to an extent that 
was not known before the publication of Sir W. Pelham's letters. Kinel- 
meky had been ravaged by members of the House of Desmond, but past 
grievances were forgotten in the great crisis which had arrived. The 
young chieftain responded to the general call to arms, and led his clansmen 
to the rendezvous at Ballyhoura on the ninth of August, 1579.^^ It is stated 
by Bennett that he fell in 1582, but further research Is necessary to dis- 
cover the time and place of his death, as also of the death of O'Donoghue 
Mor and some other leading men among the Irish. A State Paper refers 
to an "Inquisition taken at Cork in 1584 of the lands of Conogher 
O'Mahown, traitor, slain in rebellion." He was no traitor, at all events, 
to the cause of his own race and country. 

2 6 Even that paragon of loyalty, Sir Cormac Mac Teig Mac Carthy, was thought to " draw 
two ways," and so Pelhatn took him to Limerick with fifteen other chiefs and Anglo-Irish gentle- 
men "who inclined towards the traitors." (Letter to Council in England, July, 1580.) Among 
the fifteen was Sir Owen Mac Carthy Reagh, who according to Warham St. Leger, " had as 
cankered a mind as any of them to the English Government, and would be in rebellion if he 
durst." 

2« These particulars are stated in the Youghal Inquisition of 1586: "Item dicunt quod 
Conoher O'Mahowneye, nuper de Kinealmeykye. seisitus fuit de feodo, de Castello, etc., et de 
omnibus terris, etc., eidem spectantium pertinentibus in Comitatu Cork, continentibus in longi- 
tudine circiter duodena milliarium, et sic seisitus existens, intravit in rebellionem apud Bally- 
hawry, nono die Auggusti, anno dictae Dom Reginae nunc vicesimo secundo. 



THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha. S^ 

On the death of Conogher^^ in the Desmond war, his cousin-german, 
Donal, son of Cian, succeeded to the Chieftainship. In a State Paper, 
which shall be quoted later on, he is referred to as " the son of O'Mahown 
Carberie." Being the son of the Chieftain Finin's eldest brother (whose 
name is in the genealogy,-^ while Finin's is not), Donal might have ex- 
pected to succeed his uncle, in 1579, in the ordinary course of Tanist Law, 
but as we have seen, his junior cousin was chosen in preference to him. 
His father Cian must have been the "O'Mahown Carberie," who married 
the daughter of Conor Fionn, Chief of Ivagha, after the death of her first 
husband, O'Driscoll, father of Sir Finen,-^ but it is possible that she was 
Clan's second wife, and that Donal was the son of a previous marriage. 
Donal O'Mahony is generally mentioned, in contemporary documents, with 
a sobriquet, spelled by English writers "Graney," which may have been 
derived from Grainne, possibly his mother's Christian name, but is 
probably, the English rendering of 5];^^!)^, ill-favoured. If the latter 
be the explanation of the name, it affords an additional instance of the 
inveterate propensity of clansmen to bestow on their leaders unflattering 
epithets reflecting on their personal appearance, such as "the lame, "the 
bent," "the bald," and many others that we meet so frequently in the 
Annals.^" As the Tanist, or presumed successor, of Conogher, Donal must, 
according to immemorial usage, have accompanied him to the Desmond 
war. He returned home the accepted Chieftain of a Sept that was con- 
fronted with the imminent danger of confiscation and extinction. An 
Inquisition held in Cork in 1584, and another held in Youghal in October, 
1586, prepared the way for the confiscation of the whole tribeland, and 
in order to make such a confiscation accord with the forms of English 
law, the " Juratores " declared (on oath) that the late Chief "slain in 
rebellion was seized as of fee, of the country of Kinelmeky." This finding 
was not only untrue but notoriously untrue. Nothing was better known 
about the Irish land system than that the Sept-land was the common 
property of the Sept, and that the Chief's proprietory right ^^ was of a 
very limited character, and not at all comparable to English ownership 
in fee simple. But it would have been tedious, if not impossible, to in- 
vestigate the cases of all the clansmen who were out in "rebellion," and 
so the " Juratores" got at them in globo by the summary process of declar- 
ing the Chieftain the owner in fee from whom all his followers held. One 
does not easily see the motive of putting this strain on the consciences 

2 7 It is a curious coincidence that the representatives of the Cinel Aodha and the 
Cinel Laeghere, the two branches of the once united tribe, the Ui Eachach Mumhan, 
both fell in this war, and that in the official list (1589) of persons "for High Treason 
attainted," are placed side by side the names of 

" Conogher O'Mahony of Castlemahon, 

Rory O'Donoghue (Mor) of Ross O'Donoghue." 

28Geneal. MS. 23, G. 22., R. I. Acad, 

29 Harleian MSS. 1425, p. 25, Brit. Museum, as given in O'Donovan's Corcalaidhe, 
p. 401. 

30 Dr. O'Donovan mentions the singular fact that "Irish sobriquets were often given 
per antiphrasim" (use of a word in a sense opposite to its real meaning). Thus the 
most active of the O'Neill chiefs was called " Aedh the sluggish" (1230), and the epithet 
?;tiAn-CA was applied to persons of comely appearance. (Preface to O'Dugan and 
O'Heerin.) 

31 In some clans the Chief exercised the right of occasional redistribution of portions 
of the territory. But this fell far short of the right of an English feudal proprietor. 



84 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

of the members of the Youghal Inquisition, when Perrott's Parliament 
had six months previously voted the attainder of all, whether then living 
or slain, who participated in the recent war, to the number of one hundred 
and forty. A considerable number, however, of those who took part in 
the Insurrection were pardoned — a measure due rather to the policy or 
weakness than to the humanity of the Government. Amongst those were 
the White Knight, Patrick Condon, and several Fitzgeralds ; the Lord 
Barry escaped confiscation with the imposition of a fine. The success 
of so many in obtaining a remission of the attainder, and of the forfeiture of 
their properties, encouraged Donal to hope for a similar remission. In a 
letter of Florence McCarthy's [Life of Florence/' p. 106), it is stated that 
he went to England, to the Privy Council, "to sue for his lands of Kinel- 
meky." But he was doomed to disappointment; the Government would 
not readily forego the opportunity of extinguishing an Irish tribe, how- 
ever Indulgently they might treat Anglo-Irish rebels. He kept up the 
claim during 1587, as we learn from the document among the State Papers 
headed, "Land in Munster allotted to undertakers, claimed by the Irish." 
In this document we find among other entries : — " Claimed by Mac Carthy 
Reagh and by one of the O'Mahownies of Kinelmeky, Kinelmeky the 
country of Conogher O'Mahony containing two seignories and a half." 

Some observations must now be made on the novel claim of Owen 
McCarthy Reagh, mentioned in the foregoing document. No such pre- 
tensions had been put forward by any of his predecessors, or appear in 
their "Inquisitions." The Barry Oges, indeed, the lords of Kinelea, 
had been (as we have already seen) for centuries alleging a claim to 
Kinelmeky, as being Kinelea (Ultra) — a claim derived from the grantees 
of Henry II., authorised by that monarch to plunder Irish tribelands of the 
"Kingdom of Cork "—If they could. The Clan of the O'Mahons had 
ignored Barry Oge's parchment title, and successfully resisted his ag-gres- 
slon. But if any Irish or Anglo-Irish Chief, especially a loyalist such 
as McCarthy Reagh, invaded Kinelmeky in order to acquire an 
over lordship, the Barry Oges would undoubtedly have made 
loud and reiterated complaints to the English Governments^ about 
the aggression that would tend to deprive them of all chance 
of ever obtaining the coveted territory. There are no such com- 
plaints in the State Papers, because there was no such aggression. In 
ic;62 they complained of the encroachments of the Earl of Desmond on 
Kinelea, others made similar complaints, and the Earl was forthwith 
obliged to give security that he would no longer molest the "Lord Great 
Barry, Little Barry (Barry Oge), Lord Roche, Mac Carthy Reagh, &c." 

To maintain that a Clan which had lost Its Chief in battle, either against 
native or English forces, thereby forfeited Its right to choose his successor, 

32 Mr. Gillman (Cork Hist, and Arch. "Journal," 1897, art. on the Castle of 
Dundanier) shows that "the Barry Oa;e was a persona grata to the English Government 
from the time of Henry VIII. to the Desmond Rebellion." He might have said the same 
of every Barry Oge since 1237, when Philip an Airgid was pardoned for a revolt on 
payment of a fine. The story told in the " Letter of the Citizens of Cork," in 1440, of 
Barry Oge's forfeiture at that period, is disproved by the researches of a special Com- 
mission in it;88, which failed to find the slightest evidence of the alleged forfeiture, and 
had to fall back on another device to extinguish his title to his lands. The Barry Oge of 
1583 compromised in the Rebellion, did not trouble himself about renewing his "claim" 
to Kinelmeky, having quite enough to do to try and retain Kinelea, 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 85 

and that its right to the soil lapsed to an extern Chieftain, who may have 
receixed its " Chiefries " or head rents, would be to make an assertion 
utterly at variance with Irish law, and repugnant to Irish sentiment. But 
the English Government was not indisposed to act on such a principle, 
in response to the petition of a loyalist, who could show that he had been 
the recognised "overlord" of a territory in such circumstances. Thus, 
the claim of Mac Carthy Mor to the lands of the patriot Chief, O'Donoghue 
Mor, slain in the "Rebellion," had been fully conceded in 1584. A hke 
concession would have been made to Mac Carthy Reagh if he could show 
that he possessed over Kinelmeky ^^ an authority similar to that which 
Mac Carthy Mor indisputably had over the territory of Loch Lene. As a 
loyalist, he had a better record than even Mac Carthy Mor. Of the native 
chiefs " few indeed," writes Mr. Mac Carthy Glas, " stood by the Govern- 
ment in the Desmond struggle Cormac Mac Carthy of 

Muskerry and Donogh Mac Carthy Reagh brought the whole force of 
their countries to assist the Government in its hour of need. In the long 
and gloomy struggle these men were found faithful." [Life of Florence 
McCarthy, p. 9.) Owen Mac Carthy Reagh had continued the policy 
of his brother, and supplied the English troops with provisions during 
the war. Whatever sentiments might be entertained with regard to him 
by local "undertakers" and their friends, the heads of the Irish Govern- 
ment had no prejudice against such a devoted supporter. But he failed 
to present to them even the semblance of a case. His claim was that 
"the O'Mahons held from him," because Kinelmeky "was parcell of 
Carbery," and he was " Lord of Carbery. " We learn the contents of his 
first petition, presented in 1587, from the two questions proposed by 
Walsingham to Justice Jessua Smythe. Smythe's reply, too verbose to 
be quoted in extenso, is dated " Kinsale, April 14, 1588": — "And for 
Kinelmeky, whereof your honour would be informed, first, whether the 
barony or cantred be part of Carbery or distinct and several in itself .... 
I have conferred with sundry of the best knowledge and credit, and I find 
that Kinelmeky is, and hath been since Henry II., a barony by itself, 
never parcel of Carbery, but some time of the territories of Barry Oge, 
an English Sept, and called by the English, Kinelea Ultra. For the 
second question, as to whether the O'Mahowne of Kinemleky be tenant at 
will to the Carthys of Carbery, that is a matter never heard of before, but 
a feigned plea devised when these causes were at hearing, to delude the 
Commissioners. But the contrary is well known, that the O'Mahowne 

is as ancient in Kinelmeky as Mac Carthy Reagh in Carbery 

chosen by the like ceremony of Irish Captainry, by the country of Kinel- 
meky, according to the custom and right of the Sept, and never heard of 
to be either appointed or displaced by any Carthy." 

One of those men " of good credit " with whom Smythe coni erred was 
William Lyon, Protestant Bishop of Cork and Ross, whose letter he 
forwarded to W^alsingham. Bishop Lyon writes as follows: — "Being 
of late requested by you to deliver my knowledge touching Kinelmeky, 
whether it be in Kinelea or Carbery, and whether the O'Mahownes have 

33 In the " surrender and regrant" of O'Donovan's lands in 1610, there is a saving 
clause "saving to Donnell McC. Reagh any chief rents, etc., payable to any of his 
ancestors. (From a Patent Roll of James I., quoted by Dr. O'Donovan, "Annals Four 
Masters," p. 2443,) 



86 THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

held it of the Carties .... My rolls of the Bishopric of Cork, which 
are accounted to be as authentic as they are ancient, plainly say that the 
Churches in Kinelmeky are in the Deanery of Kinelea Ultra, and for proof 
that it is in Kinelea Ultra the lord of Kinelea (Barry Oge), another deanery, 
doth make challenge to Kinelmeky as in Kinelea Ultra. And as to your 
other question, since my coming unto these parts I have often heard from 
persons of the best of credit that the O'Mahownes have never held of 
the Carties, but that they are ancient gentlemen of themselves and 
ancienter than the Mac Carties .... it was never heard otherwise in 
the country but that the O'Mahownes held by inheritance successively, 
so that the Carties could not displace them." He concludes by expressing 
his belief that "the O'Mahownes now living will not confess themselves 
to be tenants of Mac Carthy." (Letter to Jessua Smythe, April 5th, 

This testimony, with other evidence contained in documents which he 
calls " offices," were sent by Smythe to Walsingham, and were brought 
before "Lord Anderson and the other Commissioners then at Cork" in 
September, 1588, and decision was given against Mac Carthy Reagh's 
pretensions. It may be said that Smythe and Bishop Lyon were hostile 
witnesses, and desirous of seeing Kinelmeky occupied by an English 
colony. But the accuracy of Bishop Lyon's statement as to the superior 
antiquity of the Clan of The O'Mahons (proved in the first part of this 
history) shows that he consulted competent antiquaries, and creates a 
presumption that his other assertions are also the result of careful inquiry. 
When he and Jessua Smythe denied that the appointment of the O'Mahon 
was made by Mac Carthy, they knew they were making a statement which 
could be very easily refuted (to their great discredit) if it were not true. 
The late Chieftain, Conogher, was inaugurated in 1579.^^ The inaugura- 
tion of a Chieftain was a public and impressive event that was witnessed 
by thousands. Don Philip O 'Sullivan Beare has given a graphic account 
ol the details of the ceremonial. {Hist. Cath. Hiberniae, Lib. iii.. Cap. iv.) 

Owen Mac Carthy Reagh did not acquiesce in the decision given in 
Cork. He returned to the charge next year. His second petition was 
presented in August, 1589. It is preserved among the State Papers, and 
is a weak and confused document. In the commencement of it he quotes a 
sentence of Bishop Lyon's, without mentioning his name, and Justice 
Smythe's reference to the election of O'Mahon by Tanistry "as the 
Carties are in Carbery," and thus shows that he had read the case pre- 
sented against him. Nev<ertheless he does not atjtempt to refute the 
express statement that he had nothing to do with the appointment, that 
is to say, the inauguration of the O'Mahon Chiefs. Neither does he state 
that he received an annual tribute, specifying the amount. ^^ In other 
words, he was unable to prove the two points that were essential for estab- 

34 It took place, doubtless, in Rath Rathleann, as being the most ancient and historic 
place connectf-' with the history of the Sept. 

3 5 Jessua Smythe, in his letter to Walsingham, thinks that there may have been 
an " extorted chief ry," i.e., one seized from time to time by force. An instance of 
such a seizure by Mac Carthy Reagh in the lands of a minor Sept of the MacCarthys 
is given in the " Life of Florence MacCarthy," p. 5, by Mr. MacCarthy Glas. Jessua 
Smythe's supposition is not borne out in the above petition ; no " chiefry" is specifically 
mentioned at all. An "extorted" one would, if taken, be represented by Mac Carthy 
Reagh as due by hereditary right. 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. S7 

lishing the existence of an " overlordship. " If he actually enjoyed the 
right which he claimed, those points could be proved by the testimony of 
witnesses then living. But he has no such testimony to produce. He is 
driven to the necessity of again repeating (from his former petition) that 
" Kinelmeky is parcell of Carbery," but he has nothing at all to say against 
the historical evidence which had been produced to show that the old 
tribe-name Kinelea comprehended Kinelmeky before the time of the forma- 
tion of the Deaneries, Kinelea Ultra and Kinelea Citra, which took place 
early in the Norman period. He had to meet the allegation of Bishop Lyon 
that "the O'Mahons now living will not confess themselves to have been 
his tenants," and he practically confirms the allegation by not contradicting 
it. But his main reliance is not on legal or historical proofs, but on the 
claim he had on the Government as a loyal subject, and he concludes hii 
petition by dwelling on the extent of his services at a critical time. "It 
may please your honourable Lordships respecting your suppliant's loyalty, 
and regarding his good service during the Rebellion, not to give credit tc 
those that covet this land, but to grant him a favourable despatch of his 
petition, so that he may not be driven to remain here at greater cost than 
he can maintain." He had advanced^'' nothing new, and had not refuted 
the case made against his claim, and so " their Lordships " refused to alter 
the decision already arrived at. It is significant that Mr. McCarthy (Glas), 
who, from his extensive knowledge of the State Papers of the time, gives a 
very full account of Owen McCarthy Reagh's Chieftainship, and had occa- 
sion to quote a letter of Popham's, incidentally mentioning the rejection of 
the above petition, withholds the petition itself from publication, and care- 
fully avoids saying one word in its defence. ^^ The ignoble and unwarrant- 
able claim was calculated — at least in 1 587-1 588 — to embarrass the real pro- 
prietors of Kinelmeky and interfere with their last chance of obtaining 
restitution of their land. 

The Commission held in Cork not only rejected the claim above stated 
and discussed, but also re-affirmed the finding of the two Inquisitions — 
"that Conogher O'Mahony was seized as of fee of the country of Kinel- 
meky." On the attainder of Conogher, and on that alone, was based the 
English Queen's title to dispose of the territory to two undertakers, Phane 
Beecher and Hugh Worth. Soon after the conclusion of the legal investiga- 
tions above mentioned, the patents were signed on September 30th, and 
possession was taken of the confiscated land. The undertakers did not 
anticipate the trouble that was in store for them. The expropriated Chief 
and his people did not tamely acquiesce in the arrangements made for their 
extinction. Donal commenced at once a guerilla warfare, which ended only 
with his death in 1894." Twelve months subsequently Richard Harrison, 
"Attorney unto Phane Beecher," writes a doleful account of the under- 
takers : — " And then presently after came on Daniel Graney O'Mahon, with 

36 The claim put forward in his first petition he modifies as follows: — " Finin 
O'Mahowney (the Chief who preceded Conogher) did hold Kinelmeky of me — all but three 
ploughlands, which he demised to his sons." Three ploughlands, and only three, 
held independently of him. This contradictory and confused statement would seem to 
justify Lord Burleigh's description of Owen Mac Carthy Reagh as " a simple man." It 
seems to convey a hint to the Lords Commissioners that he would raise no objection to 
the confiscation of the three ploughlands occupied by Finin's sons. 

37 "Life of Florence McCarthy," pp. ii-ioo. 



S8 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA, 

divers other malefactors, entered into Castle O'Mahon and burned the said 
Castle, and thence did take and spoil the goods therein belonging to the said 
Phane Beecher and others, and so continued in the country . . whereupon 
those people that were ready to come from England, on hearing the report 

hereof, did stay from coming over then there be six persons left 

by Mr. Beecher, besides those lately sent, at Castle Mahon .... those 
Irish tenants that be upon the said seignory are such as he found there 
dwelling, and to avoid further trouble thought good not to displace them. 
Phane Beecher will return next March (1590). The whole nation of 
O'Mahons is to be suspected, for they do pretend title (i.e., maintain) and 
are brothers and cousins of the traitor, Daniel Graney O'Mahon." (State 
Papers, Ireland, vol. 146, in London Record Office.) 

The burning of Castle Mahon, that is to say of everything combustible 
found in it, alarmed the undertakers of South Munster. Valentine Brown 
wrote from Kerry to the Privy Council: — " Donal Graney has burned 
O'Mahowne's Castle." Sir Thomas Norreys wrote to Lord Deputy and 
Council, mentioning, with thred^** other dangerous men, " O'Mahown 
Carbery's son, Donal Grainne, who doth greatly repine at the settling of 
undertakers in Kinelmeky, sometime his father's land." Unreasonable 
man Donal ! David Barry, Lord Buttevant, wrote of Donal 's " Rebellions 
in Kinelmeky," and insinuates that his (Lord Barry's) old enemy, Florence 
Mac Carthy, was a secret supporter of Donal 's, and had made him a pre- 
sent of a sword as a token of sympathy. The bitterest of the letters of 
complaint was that of Justice Jessua Smythe (then residing in Kinsale) 
to Lord Burghley. It is curious to observe how he manages to conceal 
that the person whose action he reports was the Chief of Kinelmeky, and 
the occupier of the Castle from the beginning of 1583 to the attainder of 
his cousin in 1586. It is hard to conjecture his motive; could he have 
feared that Burghley might have some sympathy for the dispossessed 
proprietor? The penniless lawyer who had come over to Ireland to make 
a living in the midst of hardship and danger seeks to disparage as " a 
poor man now of mean estate" the long-descended head of an ancient 
Sept: — "One Donal Graney O'Mahown of late in England, of 
mean estate, but of great power to do hurt, went first out and stood on 
his keeping. When nothing was attempted against him, entered in and 
brake and burned a Castle called Castle O'Mahown in Kinelmeky for- 
feited to Her Majesty. There is daily adhering to him, providing of 
weapons (sic) to do all the murders they may. He walketh by night and 
often by day in Carbery at his pleasure. Nothing is done against him 
during the Governor's absence, but a faint pursuit by a few Carbery kerne 
men of his own feather. It is reported that a like company hath burned 
Dunbeacon Castle." The writer then goes on to recommend that vigorous 
action be taken against Donal, and that, for this purpose, "one Captain 
Bostock, who resideth at the boundary of Kinelmeky, be supplied with a 
sufficient number of kernes." The letter exhibits the weakness of the 
English Government, which could not provide English soldiers to protect 
the undertakers, but had to depend on hiring some stray "kernes," who, 

38 The other men "to be doubted" were Donal, base son of the Earl of Clancar, and 
the Lord Roche. Donal figures frequently in the State Papers as the Robin Hood of 
Murister, and was a thorn in the side of Valentine Brown, who therefore — Haud ignarus 
mali — had a fellow feeling for Phane Beecher. 



THE O'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 89 

naturally, had not their hearts in the work for which they were engaged. 
This Captain Bostock, a few years after, was suspected of treasonable 
communications with Capt. Jacques dei Franceschi (so often mentioned in 
the State Papers), and Lord Burghley, acting on information received 
from his own spies in Munster, wrote to Carew (June, 1601) ordering him 
to seize and search Bostock's papers on any plausible pretext, or "rather 
than it be not done, quacunque via." Carew replied: — "Touching 
Bostock . . . ( have searched his coffers and found nothing ; the pretext 
1 made was for certain commissions granted to him and others about the 
title of O'Mahon's lands, whereof he had a portion, which for her Majesty's 
special service was required." So it appears that Beecher and Worthe 
had to pay Bostock for protection by surrendering to him some of the 
confiscated land allotted to them. They appear to have enjoyed a tem- 
porary respite during a part, at all events, of the year 1590, in which year 
Robert Payne, agent "of XXV. undertakers," wrote his "Brief Account 
of the State of Ireland," ^^ in which he says: — "There is one Mr. Phane 
Becher, who hath a great part of a proper country called Kinelmeky, about 
three miles from Timoleague and six from Kinsale. Through it runneth 
a goodly river called Bandon, wherein is a great store of fish of sundry 
kmds, salmon, trouts, &c. In his country is (sic) great woods, the trees 
of wonderful height, showing the fertility of the soil." But Lord Barry 
of Buttevant's mention of Donal's "Rebellions" in Kinelmeky (letter to 
Burghley, 1593) implies that, after intervals of peace, inroads were again 
and again made on the new-comers. Thus, harassing and harassed, the 
despoiled Chief spent the remainder of his life. His clansmen were to a 
great extent saved from being displaced, for only a few English colonists 
ventured to come into such a dangerous territory.^'' 

A peculiarly authenticated tradition states that an offer was made to 
Donal that he might retain half of his Septland, on agreeing to a pacific 
surrender of the remainder, and that he was asked the question : " Which 
side of the Bandon River would you prefer?" The refusal of the uncom- 
promising Donal was expressed in an old proverbial saying, used when 
one declined to make a choice between two good things, but preferred to 
have both. The memory of the incident was preserved by the habitual 
association of his name, henceforward, with that proverbial saying, in 
Carbery and Muskerry, as long as the Irish language continued in ordinary 
use: — "1 x)ceAnncA a ceite if ]:e-<.\i\p iat), m^\f AT)titi)*M|\c O ITlA^cgArhnAX 
teip An ^eA\\ gAtt-OA." " ' It is better have both," as O'Mahouna said to 
the foreigner." In one of the State Papers of 1587, p. 385, we find what 
should, in all probability, be regarded as a confirmation of this account. 
Under the heading of "Land allotted to undertakers in Munster, claimed 
by the Irish" is mentioned " Kinelmeky claimed by one of the O'Mahons" 
(Donal as we have already seen). Next follows an imperfect sentence : — 
"An offer was made . . . (then a blank). It is pretty safe to conclude 
that the "offer made," but for some private or political reason not fully 
stated, was the same offer above mentioned which tradition has preserved. 

39 Payne's work is a very small pamphlet. It gives some curious details Throughout 
Munster '" there is plenty of Iron Stone, which a smith here will, in his forge, make 
iron presently." " Swine will feed very fat in the woods (on mast and acorn) without any 
food given them by hand." He adds that " they will be fatted within two years," 

40 See quotation from Richard Harrison in a previous page. 



90 THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA^ 

About the end of 1593, or the beginning of 1594, death brought to a 
close the troubled career of Donal Grainne O'Mahony, who may be re- 
garded in some respects as an Irish prototype of Scott's idealised " Master 
of Ravenswood." In 1594, a letter of Lord Barry of Buttevant refers to 
"Donal Grainne lately in action." The word "killed" is, in all pro- 
bability, omitted after "lately." Less disputable evidence of his death 
is afforded by the mention made of his successor in 1594. 

The Chieftainship of the doomed Clan reverted to the family of Finin, 
and his son, Dermod (a younger brother of the slain Conogher) was 
appointed to succeed Donal.*^ We have seen in a previous page a reference 
in the Fiants to Finin "called O'Mahowne Carberie, of Castle O'Mahowne, 
and Dermod O'Mahowne of the same place." The year 1594 was remark- 
able for the number of suits brought before the Dublin Privy Council for 
the restitution of lands usurped or sequestrated. A State Paper has the 
fcllowing heading: — " Docquet of Irish suitors, Ormonde, Dunsany, D. 
O'Connor Sligo, Dermod O'Mahowne, alias O'Mahowne Carberie," and 
a number of others. By the example of many, known to be seeking for 
restoration of lands, Dermod was induced to desist, for a time, from his 
predecessor's policy of despair, and to raise once again before the Dublin 
Privy Council an objection to the assumption on which was based the 
confiscation of Kinelmeky — the assumption that the deceased Conogher 
held in fee simple the whole barony, that all its other occupiers held from 
him, and that all were involved in his forfeiture. In 1595 Florence 
McCarthy Reagh, who had a long experience of litigation about lands, 
offered to act as agent for the Chief of Kinelmeky, who was his cousin- 
german. Florence was himself interested, as Tanist of Carbery, in ob- 
taining a recognition of the fact that Irish Customary Law did not invest 
a Chief with the proprietary rights of a feudal owner. If Donal McCarthy 
Reagh had a feudal tenure of Carbery, it was all over with Florence's 
chance of becoming his successor. In the very year and month (April, 
1595) in which he commenced to act for Dermod O'Mahon, he had argued 
in a letter to Burghley that to treat Donal (na Pypy) McC. Reagh as 
having been heir to his country, in the English sense, "because the eldest 
brother's heir" would "mean to disinherit a whole Sept, being a thing 
that was never done in Ireland hitherto," and he points out that "Law 
doth allow custom as well in England as in Ireland," having perhaps 
specially before his mind the " Custom of Kent " and " Borough English." 
Florence considered himself entitled to say that no Sept had been dis- 
inherited through the recognition of a feudal title in its Chief, because the 
case of Kinelmeky was then "sub judice. " In April, 1595, the members 
of the Privy Council, affecting to have received information which was 
new to them, to the effect that Conogher O'Mahon was not seized as of 

41 In the year of Dermod's appointment, a scion of his house, a youthful member of 
the Jesuit Order, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, a victim of the persecuting 
laws of the times. He had just returned fiom Rome, and probably intended to pass 
through England into his native country. In the list, preserved by the Order, of those 
who suffered with him on that occasion, he is called " John Cornelius." O'Sullivan Beare 
(Hist. Cath. Comp.) gives the following account of him: — "Pater Joannes O'Mahunus, 
alias Cornelius, sacerdos e sacra religione Societatis Jesu, in Kenalmeca, populo Iberniae, 
natus nobilibus parentibus et illustri familia O'Mahunorum, qui, juvenis in Angliam cum 
parentibus proficiscitur, indeque, Romam, religionemque professus, et sacris ordinibus 
initiatus in Angliam reversus, propter fidem Catholicam suspensus secatur, anno 1594." 





i 



The "Castle O'Mahowne" of the State Papers 
OF A.D. 1576-15S8. 

(The adjoining modern mansion is shaded out.) 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA, 9I 

fee of the castle an'd lands, &c., ordered, or (shall we say?) went through 
the form of ordering-, that a new Inquisition be held on the subject. Had 
the order been carried out, and those interested allowed to attend the 
Inquisition (the Inquisitions of 1584 and 1586 had been held behind their 
backs), overwhelming evidence could have been given, by representative 
men of every Munster Sept, that the tenure of a Chieftain had been utterly 
misrepresented. But no action was taken on the letter of the Privy 
Council within the following twelve months, doubtless with their con- 
nivance, and in 1596 the Council wrote again ^- to countermand their 
order. It was alleged, they say, by the undertakers that "a new inquiry 
may prove injzirious to Her Majesty." This was all the undertakers had 
to say against the case presented, but their extra-legal point appears to 
have struck the Privy Council "all of a heap." The Council knew right 
well what a real Inquisition would establish. At the end of the fourth 
century of English occupation they could not be ignorant of anything so 
notorious as the nature of e Chieftain's tenure. The right to other people's 
lands alleged to have " lapsed to Her Majesty " was in jeopardy. So they 
turn for counsel to the two English Chief Justices, and these worthies 
oblige them by giving the courtly opinion that a "decision already given 
for the Queen ought not to be disturbed by a new Inquisition, and that the 

4- The document is interesting as throwing light on the administration of justice in 
those times, and is here given in extenso from the Acts of the Privy Council, p. 475 : — " A 
letter to Sir Thomas Norris, knight, and the Counsell of the Province of Mounster there. 
Since the tyme that uppon an office founde for h>.r Majestic uppon the attainder of Conor 
O'jNIahon, the Castle of O'Mahon and the landes of Kilnalmaka in the countie of Corke 
were seysed to her Majesty's use (which nas doone now a good manie years past) we 
have bin earnestlie sollicited by contrarie peticions and complaintes concerninge the 
said castle and landes, for albeit that office then found uppon good and diligent inquisicion 
on her Majesty's behalfe was approved and ratified by the now Lord Cheefe Justice of 
Englande, then her Majesty's Attorney Generall, the Lord Cheefe Justice of the Common 
Pleas, Mr. Baron Gent and Mr. Sergeant Heale and divers others learned in the lawes, 
nevertheless as at other tymes afterwardes there was some controversie mooved by the 
pretended clayme of Dermod O'Mahon, and more latelie in the moneth of Aprill the last 
yeare 1595, uppon the solicitacion of one Florenc Mac charta as an agent for Dermod 
O'Mahon, and uppon his informacion that Conor O'Mahon was never seised as of fee 
of that castle and goodes (sic), and the afforsaid office was undulie founde, letters were 
procured and obtayned from us to you, the Vice-President of Mounster, for a newe 
examinacion and inquisition to be made by an inquest of a sufficient nomber of the 
inhabitantes thereaboutes concerninge the rightfull interest of that castle and landes. So 
now againc on the contrarie parte one Henrie Eeecher, sonne of Phane Beecher (who 
together with one Hugh VVorth undertooke the said lands by patent from her Majestic), 
hath latelie made peticion unto us, and complained that if the said new tryall by inquest 
do proceed it male proove injurious notonlie to himselfe, the patentee, but also unto 
her Majestic. In this contrarietie of peticions and complaintes we have thought it the 
best course for the satisfaction of our myndes and performance of justice unto all parties 
to require the judgment of our verie good Lord, the Lord Chiefe Justice of England and 
the Lord Chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas, and thereon to relie for our certain 
resolucion. Whose judgment forasmuch as we finde to be such as that of the office 
founde at the first bv inquisicion uppon the attainder of Conor O'Mahon for the Queene 
ought not to be drawen in question againe by anie new inquisicion, but onlie by waie of 
peticion, we have thought meete to preferr the judgment of the said Lords Cheefe 
Justice's before our owne opinions, and therefore do now write theis our letters to make 
staie of anie new inquisicion that maie be undertaken by vertue of our alToresaid letters 
in April, 1595, and do withall require you that if anie thinge be alreadie doone to the 
disadvantage or dispossessinge of the said Henrie Beecher of anie parte or parcell of 
said landes or of his goods by vertue of our former letters, but you cause him or such 
persons as make clayme for him to be restored into his entire possession and state that 
he had in those landes before you receaved our former letters, leaving Dermod O'Mahon 
or such persons as do followe the suite for him to seeke the right that he or they pretend 
by such other means as are usuall and lawfull 



92 THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

claimant could proceed byl petition." This advice to the claimant to 
petition against the undertakers' patents was, of course, a mere mockery. 

One migHt narrate without comment the seizure and confiscation, by 
undisguised physical force, of a tribeland whose leading men had, in 
defence of civil and religious liberty, joined in the late war against Eng- 
land. But the pretence of proceeding to confiscation under the forms of 
ordinary law — by the application of a law manifestly inapplicable to the 
case in question — must be characterised as a contemptible and hypocritical 
proceeding, to which such a judicial decision as the above was a suitable 
conclusion. 

Dermod, after this experience of English law, reverted to the tactics 
of his predecessor. Naturally enough, perhaps, under the circumstances — ■ 
for even Sir W. Herbert, a few years previously, had expressed his surprise 
that Munster was not more disturbed in consequence of the planting of 
the undertakers. Arhong the State Papers bearing the date 1599 is a 
fragment of a MS. History of the preceding years, in which we read : — 
" Mac Donogh, rebel in Duhallow, Dermod O'Mahon, rebel in Carbery." 

In the eventful year 1598 "ill news from Ireland" continued to pour 
in on Cecil without intermission, the worst being Ormonde's declaration — 
"There are no means to withstand O'Neill." Cecil, in promising aid 
which he was not in a condition to send immediately, suggests to foment 
divisions, to promise assistance to the weaker of two competitors for a 
Chieftainship, and to placate with promises certain chiefs for whose lands 
"undertakers were clamouring." 

The Munster Irish watched eagerly the progress of the Northern 
Chieftains, culminating in the great victory of Bealnathabuidhe, called by 
the English "The Jorney of the Blackwater;" in a private State docu- 
ment*^ of that year it is very candidly termed the " Defeat and Runaway." 
O'Neill, after his victory, wrote to^ some of the Southern Chieftains to 
stimulate them to action. One of these letters was addressed to the 
Chieftain of Kinelmeky, as was discovered by Chief Justice Saxby, who 
writes as follows to the Privy Council: — "The Chief Rebels of Munster 
were solicited by Tyrone. To make them forward, he assured to James 
Fitzthomas the earldom of Desmond, to Donald, base son of McCarthy 
More, the earldom of Clancarthy [recte ' The title of McCarthy More '], 
to Dermod O'Mahon and the rest of his Sept the lands of Kinelmeky." 
In the Calendar of State Papers " David" occurs instead of " Dermod" — 
an obvious misprint. Of course, O'Neill must have written to some 
others, but these were all that were known to Saxby. 

In the first week in October a strong force sent by O'Neill entered 
Munster, and "forthwith," says Camden, "all Munster revolted, not so 
much through the successes of the Rebels as through hatred of the under- 
taEers." On the 12th of the same month, Ormonde writes to Elizabeth : — 
"At my coming into Munster, October 6th, I found that all the under- 
takers, three or four only accepted, had most shamefully forsaken all their 
castells and dwelling places, before any rebel came in sight, and left their 
casfells with their municions, stuff and cattel to the traytors." Among 
the castles thus hastily abandoned, " Castle Mahon, of Mr. Phane Becher," 
is expressly mentioned by Henry Smith in his Report of the State of 

43 " A conjectural Estimate of Her Mats Armye in Ireland, Sept., 1598." 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 93 

Munster, written in Oct. 30th, 1598. Becher's partner, Hugh Worth, 
"having contracted a dangerous disease," had some time before returned 
to England, And so, on the second week in October, Dermod O'Mahon 
regained possession of his ancestral Castle. While the Castle belonged 
to its original owners there is reason to believe that there was attached to it 
a residence more convenient to live in, according to a practice which was 
becoming usual in the 16th century, as we shall see later on. This is 
obviously suggested by the language in which Cox refers to it in his Regnum 
Corcagiense,^'^ written before the date (171 5) of a more modern residence. 
Cox writes: — "Castle Mahon, the mansion house of O'Mahon, the pro- 
prietor of this country, is at this day (1687) one of the finest inland seats 
in the county." The name Castle Mahon (or Castle Mahoone) continued 
to be used for a long period after the confiscation in legal and official docu- 
ments. As long as the Irish language was in general use, that is to say 
until some forty years ago, CAifte^Mi ui itlAtgxirhnA was the only name 
by which it was known to Irish speakers. 

All went well with the restored Chieftain until March 16th of the 
following year, 1599, when a great disaster befell him and his people. 
Sir Thomas Norreys, the "Lord President of Munster" (Carew's pre- 
decessor), wrote to the Privy Council on March 26th : " Since my last letter 
in Ross, I continued in this country until March i6th, but could find no 
confirmation of the arrival of the Spaniards. I returned home by Kinel- 
meky, where the O'Mahons dwell, and burned their corn and spoiled the 
country." The more usual English method of destroying young corn- 
fields^^ was by a "pracas," a specially made kind of harrow, or when the 
corn was at a more advanced stage of growth, by cutting it with sickles 
and swords. Even this devastation wrung no promise of loyalty from the 
much-enduring Clan, though a repetition of these tactics by Carew next 
year broke the spirits (and no wonder) of their more powerful kinsmen of 
Ivagha, who then, says the Pacata Hihernia, "came into protection and 
remained good subjects until the Spanish came." No doubt Carew's sys- 
tematic operations (see Pacat. Hih., Bk. I, p. 138) inflicted more wide- 
spread damage in the west than the passing raid of Norreys did in his 
march through the eastern tribeland. The above letter was the last 
that Norrevs wrote describing his soldierly exploits. He was killed soon 
after in some skirmish. 

Dermod O'Mahon died some time towards the close of this year, and 
was succeeded by his brother, Maolmuadh, who was the last of his line. 
His name is anglicised Moelmoe in the Pacata Hihernia and the State 
Papers of the time, and by that name, therefore, it will be more convenient 
to call him in this narrative.*^ When a very young man he had been 

44 A Captain Gookin, who died about 1670, bequeathed to his wife " tlie manor of 
Castlemahon." In the list of M.P.'s of the vear 1727 is "Stephen Bernard of Castle- 
mahon." Finn's " Leinster Journal," in 1782, describes an accident that occurred "at 
Castlemahon near Bandon." 

45 Fynes Morrison relates that when the English soldiers shrank from executing this 
inhuman work in Leix, the land of the O'Moores. "the officers had to encourage them by 
their example, cutting down the corn with their swords, to the value of ;^io,ooo." Mor- 
rison expresses his admiration of the excellent cultivation of Leix bv those whom he 
insolently calls barbarians. See notes to "Four Masters," vol. vi., p. 2187. 

46 Cox. who had not seen the Irish spelling of the name, calls him " Moyle More," 
and is followed bv Smith ("Hist, of Cork"). 



94 THE o'mahonys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

"out" in the Desmond Insurrection under his brother Conogher, as 
appears from the statement of C'arew, which shall be quoted presently. 

In January, 1600, O'Neill announced that he was going to the South 
" to learn the intentions of the gentlemen of Munster regarding the great 
question of the nation's liberty and religion." Religious liberty he could 
not find in Munster wherever the Government had the power to enforce 
the Statute of 1559, subjecting to imprisonment for life (on a third con- 
viction) all clergymen who would "refuse to use the Book of Common 
Prayer, and adopted any other form of worship, openly or privately, 
regarding the celebration of the Lord's Supper," and inflicting a like 
penalty "on all laymen who may attend such form of worship." (Lib. 
Statut., p. 201.) When O'Neill fixed his camp at Inniscarra on March 
6th, Moelmoe was one of the Munster Chiefs who attended his levee, along 
with the Chieftain of Ivagha; the Annals F. M'., in their enumeration, 
mention in the plural "the O'Mahonys." "Those," says Carew, "whom 
Tyrone found obstinate in Rebellion he encourageB ; from those who he 
held doubtful he took pledges." From the two chiefs mentioned he 
required to take no pledges. Moelmoe's visit to O'Neill's camp was not 
forgotten by Carew. Nine months, however — a rather long time — ^elapsed 
before any hostile action was taken against him, but in November a swoop 
was made on his territory : — ■" Sir Richard Percy drew his company forth 
of Kinsale into Kinelmeky, and there took a pray of two hundred cows 
and got the killing of some rebels." [Pacata Hihernia, p. 178.) After 
this mishap arrangements were made to watch the movements of the 
Kinsale garrison, and when the next raid was attempted in December the 
English soldiers, when they crossed the boundary of Kinelmeky (perhaps 
in the vicinity of Dundaniel), found themselves in presence of three 
hundred armed clansmen. Dermod Moyle (Maol) McCarthy, then a fugi- 
tive in Kinelmeky from the vengeance of Carew, who justly regarded him 
as "one of the most dangerous men" in Munster, joined his cousin in 
resisting the attacking party. No Irish account of the skirmish has come 
down. The account in the Pacata Hihernia in all probability minimises the 
number of soldiers sent on such a dangerous expedition, and attempts to 
disguise a defeat: — "The 21st of this month of December Sir Richard 
Percy sent sixty of his garrison at Kinsale into Kinelmeky, O'Mahon's 
countrle, to get the prey of the same, whereunto he was encouraged by 
one who promised to guide them, so they should not misse of all the 
cowes in the same ; Dermod Moyle Mac Cartie, Florence his brother, and 
Moylmo O'Mahon, the Chlefe of his Sept, having some Intelligence of their 
coming, with three hundred foote and some horse, assailed them, not 
doubting but to have cut all their throats ; for the space of two hours a 
good skirmish was maintained ; but the Rebels not finding the Defendants 
to be Chikins, to be afraid at the sight of every cloud or kite, with some 
losse (of slain and hurt men) soberly retreated; of th'e garrison of Kinsale 
onely two private men were hurt, yet they returned ill pleased for that 
they missed of the booty expected." Reading between the lines, this 
means that the attacking party was beaten off. No other raid was 
attempted on Kinelmeky by the Kinsale garrison. Even if we suppose 
that the above account exaggerates considerably the number that opposed 
the raiders, and that the number was two hundred, not three hundred, it 
should be remembered that with such short notice it would be Impossible 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 95 

to muster even half the clansmen of a territory about twelve miles square. 
If besides we take into account the losses sustained in the Desmond war, 
and the diminution of the population consequent on the confiscation, we 
cannot put the fig-hting- strength of the clan, in the year 1579, at less than 
five hundred men. The misrepresentation in Bennett's History of Bandon 
has been already exposed. 

The next recorded event in the life of Moelmoe took place in July 
20th, 1601. The "Spanish succour" was the subject uppermost in the 
mind of all. The policy of Carew was to discourage the Spanish Govern- 
ment from sending the expedition by seizing on those Chiefs whose co- 
operation with the invading force would be most necessary, and could be 
relied on. He had seized James Fitzthomas and Florence McCarthy, and 
sent them to the Tower of London. He then resolved "to lay hold of all 
such persons as had been most pernitious in the former warres, and likely 
to prove most dangerous in after times ; these were principally four, 
Dermod Mac Owen Cartie, alias Mac Donogh, that was a partaker in the 
petition to the Pope's sanctitie ; another Teg Mac Dermond Cartie, brother 
to Cormuc Lord of Muskerry ; the third, Moilmo O'Mahon, Chiefe of the 
Sept of the O'Mahons in Kinelmeky ; and the fourth and last was Dermod 
Moil Mac Cartie, brother to Florence Mac Cartie." {Pacata Hibernia, 
p. 314.), The plan that he adopted to get them in his power reveals the 
weakness of the Government at the time. He could not send a force 
into their tribelands to arrest them. The device he adopts, he tells 
us, was "to invite all the freeholders of the county to the Assizes in 
Cork," and to arrest those Chiefs as soon as they came. This is not a 
"plain unvarnished tale." Those who had lately been fighting ag'ainst 
the Royal troops, and who were constantly described as rebels, would 
not think that the general invitation was meant for them, nor would they 
trust themselves to Carew on the strength of it. It is plain that he must 
have sent special messeng-ers or letters to convey to them the impression 
that the past was now forgotten, and that they would be no longer treated 
as enemies. By this fraudulent plan he lured Moelmoe, McDonogh, and 
Teig McCormack to Cork, and imprisoned them forthwith. The cautious 
Dermod Maol McCarthy waited to see "how his friends sped, and then con- 
veyed himself to the North among his fellow-rebels. " ^'' (Pac. Hihern. p. 314.) 
Moelmoe and his two associates did not regain their liberty until the mfddle 
of the year 1603. The fate of these three intrepid men has been a peculiarly 
hard one. They were seized and imprisoned by Carew, as, in his judgment, 
the most ardent and dangerous opponents of English rule. But in after 
ages injustice has been done to their memories by the assertion so often 
repeated in popular histories and popular lectures, that no Munster Chiefs 
would lend a helping hand to the Spanish Expedition and to O'Neill, except 
O'Sullivan Beare and O'Driscoll — two men of "untainted loyalty," whom 
Carew implicitly trusted, and did not mean to imprison, and who had- 
refused to come to meet O'Neill at Inniscarra in 1600. O'Sullivan was 

■*7 Carew then wrote to Cecil, Aug. 6th : — " Of the Irish I have restrained (imprisoned) 
three principal men, the pretended Lord of Duhallow, the Tanist of Muskerry, and the 
pretended Lord of Kinelmeky, all to my knowledge dangerous persons." Next week he 
wrote again about " the three gentlemen whom I lately restrained," and described two 
of them as relatives of Florence and of his surname, and says that " O'Mahon is his 
aunt's son." 



g6 THE o'mahonvs of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

embarrassed by the consideration of the help the English had given him 
against a competitor for the Chieftainship, until he began to realise that 
the help was given not for his sake, but for the purpose of dividing the 
tribeland. 

The Northern Chieftains on the march to Kinsale selected Kinelmeky 
as their camping ground and as the rendezvous of their Munster adherents. 
So Don Philip O'Sullivan Beare expressly states ("in ea Carberiae parte 
quae Kinelmeka appellatur"), and his statement is confirmed by a letter 
from Carew to Mountjoy, stating that O'Donnell marched from Croom into 
O'Mahon's Country;" he omits to say that the march was not direct. 
Kinelmeky was the only friendly territory on the way to Kinsale ; McCarthy, 
the Lord of the Country of Muskerry, had already sent on a thousand men to 
oppose the Spaniards. (Pacata Hih., p. 362.) Thence the Irish army marched 
tO' their next encampment at Coolcarran wood, near Kinsale, and doubtless 
included a considerable contingent from the now leaderless clan of the 
imprisoned Moelmoe.^® The battle of Kinsale belongs to the general history 
of Ireland. But it is hard to refrain from some comment on the unhistorical 
statement often repeated m recent times, that "the English army defeated 
the Irish at Kinsale." More than half the so-called English Army con- 
sisted of Irish clansmen, whose chiefs had decided to support the English 
Government. It is an indisputable fact that whenever the English troops 
since 1590 (without any or with few Irish auxiliaries) met an equal number 
of Irish, the English were defeated and made what their own historians, 
Camden, Dymock, Harrington, &c., describe as cowardly retreats.*^ 

In April, 1602, three months after the battle of Kinsale, Carew, in his 
march from Cork to besiege Dunboy, made a long detour towards the South 
to avoid passing through Kinelmeky, still occupied by the hostile tribe, 
whose spirit was not quite broken by the disaster at Kinsale. The reason 
assigned by Smith {History of Cork )for this circuitous march is that Kinel- 
meky was impassable owing to natural obstacles. But such a description 
of that territory has been already shown to be unfounded. Smith's con- 
jecture is not confirmed, but rather virtually contradicted, by the author of 
the Pacata Hihernia, who had no hesitation in describing a portion of 
Carew's route in West Cork as almost impassable. 

About a year after the battle of Kinsale the people of Carbery formed a 
combination to resist the depredations and cruelties of Carew's officers. 
An account of the skirmish which ensued may be seen in Macgeoghegan's 
History of Ireland, translated and condensed from O'Sullivan Beare 's 
account.^'* In the contest Moelmoe's younger brother, Teig O'Mahon (whom 

48 Philip O'Sullivan Beare mentions " O'Mahunus Carbrius " among the " Veteres 
Hibernl qui pro patria et fide Catholica pugnaverunt," on account of the known intention 
of Moelmrie and the action taken by his Clan. His brother " Thaddseus O'Mahunus 
Carbrius " is set down in the list of the " Alii nobiles viri, factorum celebritate multis 
eorum quos retulimus superiores, non tamen principes familiarum seu ditionum." 
(" Hist. Cath. Hibern.," pp. 142 and 143, Ed. 1850.) 

49 Essex, in 1599, wrote of the soldierly qualities of the Irish : — " The Irish have able . 
bodies, good use of the arms thev carry and boldness to attempt." Sir H. Harrington 
wrote in the =nme vear : — " Our soldiers no sooner saw the enemy than they cast away 
their arms and would not strike one blow for their lives. Yet the enemy were not more 
numerous. All I could do would never make one of them turn his face towards the 
rebels." 

50 The following is Don Philip's account of the engagement: — " lUi (the Irish) arma- 
torum numero inferiores erant. Utrinque ad Cladacham sylvam parum prospere dimi- 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 97 

O'Sullivan calls Thaddaeus) distinguished himself. " He had the glory," 
says Macgeoghegan, "of beginning the action and repulsed those who were 
opposed to him." Then follows an account of the bravery and death of 
Owen Mac Egan, Bishop-Elect of Ross, whose loss disheartened the Irish 
and caused them to retreat and disperse. The sons of Sir Owen McCarthy, 
who took a leading part in getting up this insurrection, 'were pardoned 
through Captain Taaffe's influence. O'Sullivan Beare says that Teig 
O'Mahon, taken during a truce, was beheaded. According to local tradi- 
tion, the scene of this remarkable skirmish was Grillagh, south of the 
Bandon river and west of Ballincen. 

The Insurrection was now quite extinct, and the three "dangerous 
men " in Cork prison were dangerous no longer. Carew, however, de- 
tained them for nearly five months after the skirmish of Grillagh. They 
yielded to the inevitable, accepted his conditions, and their prison doors 
were at length thrown open. 

Moelmoe was liberated on June gth, 1603 (as a State Paper informs us), 
Mac Carthy Reagh Mac Carthy of Blarney and three others becoming 
securities "that Moelmoe O'Mahon alias O'Mahown de Kinelmeka will 
be of dutiful behaviour, and that his son and heir remain in the custody of 
the gentleman porter as a pledge for the loyalty of his father." 

The "undertakers" now returned to his land, and the clansmen were soon 
displaced. ^^ But he seems to have been allowed to occupy for life his own 
lands of Killowen, for in a State Paper of 1612, five hundred trees are said 
to be marked for Government service "in the land of Moelmoe O'Mahon 
of Killowen." 

The date of his death may possibly be ascertained by further research 
through State Papers. When he was laid tO' rest in the tomb of his ances- 
tors in Timoleague Abbey, ^^ with him ended, not unworthily, a long line of 
Chieftains which had lasted one thousand one hundred years. 

The son of Moelmoe was liberated towards the close of the year 1603 
(State Paper), but nothing is known of his subsequent career. Probably 
he entered the Spanish service, as did a good many of his kinsmen of 
Ivagha, according to the Pacata Hibernia and some State Papers. In a 
genealogical MS. in the R. I. Academy, classed 23, G i, compiled about 
1650 (as appears from internal evidence), Mahon, nephew of the Chieftain, 
Donal Grainne, is set down as the nominal Head of a Sept, which, as such, 
had ceased to exist. 



catur. Priore die Thadasus, Muscriis peditibus occurrens, auatuordecim occidit, caeteros 
in fugam vertens. Posteriore die, idem, Mac Carrhae equites, Dermysius, et Mac Suinni 
equites, ofiFendentes peditatus hostilis tumultura, circiter quadraginta interficiunt. Eodem 
momento alii Mac Carrhamm pedites dissipati a regio equitatu circumventi viginti interi- 
muntur, caeteri funduntur." Thaddasus was the son of a former " O'Mahon of Carbery," 
Fineen, not of Moelmoe, who was his brother. The English account of the fight, in the 
" Pacata Hibernia, p. 661, omits the names of nearly all the Irish leaders, but otherwise 
confirms O'Sullivan's narration: "The Rebels gave them so brave a charge as that they 
were disordered and some of them slain," etc." 

51 Phane Beecher brought over not only farmers and agricultural labourers, but also 
some carpenters and weavers. There is a generally accepted tradition that a member of 
the latter trade had a son and grandson who rose to a considerable social position. 

52 "Annals Four Masters," A.D. 1240. This abbey was also the burial place of other 
members of the Tribe. In his \vill, dated 1665 (preserved in the Record Office) "John 
Mac Teige O'Mahony Lawdhir," then liying in Kilcaskin, directs that his body be 
buried in Timoleague, 

7 



98 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 



PART V. 

The Minor Septs of Muskerry. 

From the main line of the chiefs descended from Mahon five minor 
septs or families branched off between a.d. 1259 and 1330. These were 
known as Clan Fineen, Clan Conogfher, the Ui Floin Luadh, Sliocht Donail 
of Kilnaglory, and Sliocht Diarmada O'lg of Kerry. The two last-mentioned 
will be more conveniently reserved for the concluding portion of this history. 
Of the first three, which were seated in West Muskerry, we shall now give 
some account, and in proceeding to do so it will be necessary to repeat a 
few passages from a previous page (130). East Muskerry (except a small 
portion) became detached from the tribeland ruled by the head of the 
undivided sept, Donogh na Himerce O'M., when De Cogan, a few years 
after the Norman Invasion, succeeded in seizing the fort of Dun Draigh- 
nean, afterwards the site of Castlemore. On the death of De Cogan, the 
fort and territory which he had seized passed into the possession of what 
was afterwards known as the Muskerry (or Blarney) branch of the Mac 
Carthys. But a long time, nearly two centuries, elapsed before they were 
able to annex the West Muskerry district, which remained, as of old, subject 
to the Chiefs of Kinelmeky. This district was co-extensive with the 
parishes of Kilmichael, Kilmurry and Dunisky, and included also part 
of Moviddy in East Muskerry. It was bounded on the north by the Lee, 
was about ten miles in length, and contained sixty-three ploughlands. 
Each of three successive chieftains of Kinelmeky bestowed a portion of it 
on a young relative, and thus originated the three sub-septs already men- 
tioned. Each of these small septs, after a time, began to elect a chief 
of its own, subordinate, of course, to the chief paramount of the whole 
clan. This state of things continued until about a.d. 1460.^ The current 
tradition in Carbery and Muskerry in the beginning of the 19th century, 
at a time when the Irish language still flourished, and an interest was 
taken in such traditions, was, that by the aid of the Mac Sweenys, "the 
Clan of Galloglasses," whO' were invited down from the North, the Mac 
Carthy Chiefs succeeded In annexing West Muskerry to their possessions. 
Independently of the well-established tradition, the foregoing statement 
would be sufficiently attested by the sites of the castles in which the 
Mac Sweenys were placed (at first) as warders. These Castles ,^ Cloghdha, 
Carrig Dermod Og, and Mashanaglas, were erected on the eastern fringe 
of the territory held by the Clan Fineen and their relatives. The date 
of the advent of the Mac Sweenys may be approximately determined by 
means of a pedigree compiled by Carew and preserved at Lambeth. 
(Cod. 636). In it he states that the first of the Muskerry branch of the 
Mac Sweenys, Edmond, "was drawn from Ulster by Cormac Mac 

1 The statement made in p. 73 (supra) as to the time when West Muskerry became 
detached from Kinelmeky is here corrected, in view of the evidence now produced from 
Carew's Codex 635, Lambeth Library, but not known to the writer when page 73 was 
written. " 

3 Cloghdha and Mashanaglas appear to have been afterwards re-bujlt. 



THE OMAHONVS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 99 

Ci-rthy"^ — the same who built Kilcrea in 1467 and died in 1494. But the 
three minor septs whose history we are recounting- appear to have offered 
a stout resistance to their combined invaders, if we may judge from the 
favourable terms which they secured for themselves when, at the end of the 
contest, they consented to pay tribute. They were allowed to retain the 
absolute ownership of their lands, and even to continue their established 
custom of electing chiefs, at whose inauguration, however, they had to 
pay^ a fixed "chiefry." Nicholas Brown, in his account of the septs of 
Munster in 1597, makes the follov^^ing reference to them: — "There are 
divers gentlemen that are freeholders in the country of Muskerry, viz., . . . 
Ifflonloe, Clanfinecn, and Clanconoghcr." (State Papers, Brt. Museum.) 



Clan Fineen. 

The Clan Fineen, called by the Irish genealogists "Clan Fineen na 
Geitherne," occupied about twenty ploughlands in the eastern and more 
fertile portion of the West Muskerry^ territory (with a part of the parish 
of Moviddy), roughly indicated in the inaccurate map which is reproduced 
on the opposite page from the Pacata Hibernia. 

This sept was the oldest of the five minor septs of the name already 
enumerated. It derived its appellation from Fineen, son of Macraith, eldest 
son of Dermod Mor I.,^ who, as has been mentioned in a previous page, 
fell in a skirmish in 1259, according to the (Bodleian) Annals of Innisfallen. 
An Irish genealogical MS. in the R.I. A. (23 H., i.e., p. 2) has the follow- 
ing : — " Dermod M6r (son of Donogh na Himerce Timchoil) had four sons, 
Macraith, Tadhg, Ricard and Donal. And Macraith's son was Finin, from 
whom are descended the Clan Fineen na Ceitherne. " If the law of 
Primogeniture were recognised by the Irish in the 13th century, Fineen 
would have been Chief of Kinelmeky ^ or of Ivagha, of which his uncle, 
Tadhg, became chief. But Tanistry preferred the grand-uncle and uncle 
to the youthful and inexperienced nephew. But though Finin and his 
successors were only heads of a small sub-clan, genealogically they were 
the main line of Mahon's descendants, and all other families in the eastern 

3 The Earl of Desmond and Mac Carthy Reagh w^re also largely indebted to the 
Mac Sweeny Clan for the predominant position they obtained. Those galloglasses had 
the advantage of being professional soldiers, who did not, like the kernes, return in 
time of peace to agricultural work, but were maintained by the Chiefs who had need 
of their services. Burleigh wrote (1577) that "one sept of the Mac Swynes directs Owen 
Mac Carthy Reagh as they list." Sir H. Sidney wrote to the Privy Council in 1575 : — 
" There came to me five brethren, all captains of galloglasses, called Mac Swynes, who, 
though I place them last, are of as much consequence as any of the rest ; for of such 
credit and force were they grown into, that (although they were no lords of lands them- 
selves) they would make the greatest lords of the province in fear of them, and glad of 
their friendship." 

4 Calendar of Carew MSS. 

5 It has been already explained in a footnote that in the Genealogical Table No. 3, 
by a lapsus calami, Macraith was called the second son of Dermod. As there was an 
accidental error in the genealogy of the Clan Finin, as given in that Genealogical Table 
(in the first part of this History), it is now repeated in an amended form :— " RIacraith, 
eldest son of Dermod Mor, Finin (a quo Clan Finin), Cian, Donogh Ruadh, Donogh, 
Maolmuadh, Mahon, Dermod, Mahon Ruadh, Tadhg, Finin, Tadhg, Dermod {1617-1633). 

6 Concobar, younger brother of Dermod Mor, was first Chief of Kinelmeky after Ivagha 
was detached from it. 



100 THE o'mamonvs of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

and western tribrlands were the branches. Fineen rccf'ivc(] the deslg-nation 
of " na Ceitherne," i.e., "of the bands or troops" (not of the kernes, 
Ceithearnaig-he), an appellation borne by many ancient Irish chiefs, and 
Indicating^ some position, difficult now to determine, in the tribal army. 
As one of his descendants was called Donogh Ruadh, Clan Fineen is set down 
by Duald Mac Firbis, in the Book of Munster, under the heading- 
" O'Mahouna Ruadh." In the Liber Tenurarum and an Inquisition 
held in Cork in 1629, we find mention made of one of this sept ," Finin Roe 
(Ruadh) O'Mahoon," who died in 1628, and is declared to have been 
the owner in fee of the townland of Pullerick, in the parish of Kilmurry (a 
townland of 726 acres), and whose son and heir was "Donogh O'Mahoon." 
In that same Inquisition, Finin is declared to be owner in fee of Dirach and 
Lackybegge (not identified), which he had mortgaged. The liber Tenurarum 
mentions a son of his as owner in fee of the townland of Ballymihil (now 
Ballymichael), near the village of Kilmurry. 

The senior representative of this line from 161 7 to 1663 was Dermod, 
son of Teig, whose name is the last given in the Irish genealogy. He was 
the owner in fee of Farnanes in the parish of Moviddy, at present one 
townland, then divided into two, and containing five hundred and eghty 
acres. It appears from a Chancery Bill, dated a.d. 1617, that he " had the 
right of inheritance to the said lands," that he had to sue Cormac Mac 
Carthy, Lord of Muskerry, who interfered with his right; that he was 
successful in his suit against Mac Carfhy, but had to make a further 
complaint against a friend of his own who was detaining his title deeds. 
He was the undisturbed owner in 1641. He joined the Insurrection of that 
year, and his name appears (with those of many of his kinsmen of Ivagha) 
in the list of the outlawed — ^"Dermod O'Mahony, of Farnanes, gentle- 
man." His lands were confiscated, but he reicovered them after the 
Restoration of Charles II., and died in 1663. In the list of " Claims lodged 
at Chichester House, Dublin in 1700-1701 " is the "Claim of Darby 
(Dermod) O'Mahony, an ancient poor gentleman, grandson and heir of 
Dermot Mac Tieg Mahony, who in 1663 died, owner of the 2 plowlands 
of Farnanes, in the Co. Cork, which had been sequestrated after 1641, 
and which his ancestors for several ages past owned in fee, and which 
claimant, after a long struggle, recovered from the Countess of Clancarty, 
and held till about 2 years ago, when he was dispossessed by one Thos. 
Crook, who claimed it as part of the Clancarty estate (which had been 
confiscated after 1690). That all claimant's deeds have been lost in the 
late troubles, or in 1641." It is almost unnecessary to say that the land 
was never recovered from the clutches of Crook, from whom, or after 
whose time, it passed to one Connor or Conner. No more Is known of 
the claimant. But the writer has recently found that there are still 
existing several families known as "Mahony Fineens," and one small 
landholder in Kinelmeky known as "Mahony na Keherny," a name in- 
dicating his descent from Finin, son of Macraith, as clearly as it could 
be shown by any parchment pedigree. 

Of the Clan Conogher there is little to record, except that It descended 
from Conogher O'M., who was the grandson of the third "O'Mahony of 
Carbery." From his place In the genealogical list this Conogher must 
have flourished In the latter half of the fourteenth century, and the 
Kinelmeky Chief, who was able to make a grant of land to his young 



THE o'mAHONYS of KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. lOI 

relative in the Muskcrry district, is thus shown to have retained his 
authority over that district in the above-mentioned period. The land of 
this sub-sept adjoined that of the Clan Fincen on the west, being situate 
partly in the parish of Kilmurry and partly in Kilmichael, and it contained 
sixteen or eighteen ploughlands. The Clan Conogher was the most recent 
of the septs. 

The Sept of Ieflonloe (Ui Floin Luadh). 

The name of this territory, which comprised twenty-eight ploughlands 
in the western part of Kilmichael, existed long before the time of the first 
distinctive ancestor of this sub-sept. According to the antiquaries whom 
Smith consulted when compiling his History of the County Cork, the name 
Ifilonloe was given to a much wider territory, namely, "the parishes of 
Kilmurry, Moviddy, Canneboy, Aglish, &c., from Flan one of the Mahonys 
nursed there, who conquered almost all this tract, as appears from the 
ancient Irish lines" (which we have previously quoted). He describes Flan 
as a predecessor of Bece, who lived in the seventh century. We have 
shown that Flan or Flon was another name for Criompthan, a remote 
ancestor of Mahon's.^ But the name Ui Flon Luadh had become restricted, 
in the 14th century, to the portion of West Muskerry above defined, which 
the Chief of Kinelmeky bestowed on his cousin, the son of Tadhg an Oir 
(brother of Dermod Mor II. of Ivagha) about the year 1320. In conse- 
quence of their descent from Tadhg an Oir, this sept has been called 
" O'Mahony an Oir," and there are a few families which are still so 
designated. One of this line about the close of the sixteenth century was 
Cohcobar, who acquired the soubriquet of " an Crochair," i.e., of the bier; 
the real or legendary reason given by tradition for this epithet is alluded 
to in his article on "The Nicknames of the Fiants," by the late Canon 
L}Gns : — " The traditional reason for the name in a sept of the O 'Mahonys 
was that their progenitor carried a bier on his shoulders over a rugged road 
where four men together had failed." (Cork Arch. Journal, 1895.) The 
head of the sept, or of what remained of it, in 1700 was Clan an Crochair, 
in praise of whom there is extant a poem written in 1719 by Donal na 
Tuile, the last tribal bard of the MacCarthys of Glennachroim.^ There is an 
ancient tomb in Kilmichael graveyard in which the last Cian and his 
ancestors of the Ui Flon Luadh were interred. This Cian's son was 
Cornelius, who obtained a Commission in the Spanish Army, rose to the 
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and Knight Commander of a distinguished 
Order, and died In 1776. He appointed as executor of his will his name- 
sake, of the Kerry branch. Count Demetrius (Dermod) O'Mahony, Am- 
bassador of the King of Spain to Vienna, and son of Count Daniel, the 

7 And not from Flon, an ancestor of the Ui Floinn. 

s Hence this sept, as regards antiquity of origin, comes next after the Clan Finin na 
Ceithirne. O'Heerin ( Topogr. Poem) heard a confused account about this latter sept, as he makes 
O'Ceithearnaigh a tribal name : — 

" A fine land, that we dare not pass over, 

O'Ceithearnaigh the smooth-skinned obtained, 
Ui Flon Lua about the far-extending Lee, 
Scions of fresh aspect like their fathers." 

— O'Donovan's Translation, 



t02 THE O^MAIIONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

hero of Cremona, known in French mihtary history as " Le fameux 
Mahony. " The Ambassador exerted himself to find out the heirs of his 
friend, and succeeded in doing so by the aid of Maurice O'Connell of Derry- 
nane, who got his Cork agent to make the necessary inquiries and to pay 
the legacies. The receipt of the legatees is given in Mrs. O'Connell's 
Life of the Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade. It is as follows : — " We, the 
under-written Cornelius O 'Mahony, Kean O'M., EHzabeth O'M., and 
Mary O'M., nephews and nieces of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Cornelius 
O 'Mahony, deceased, in the Spanish service, acknowledge to have received 
from his Excellency Count O 'Mahony, Ambassador from the Court of 
Spain to that of Vienna, byi the hands of Martin French, Esq., the sum of 
ninety pounds sterling, making, with the sums already transmitted to us, 
the full amount of the inheritance from our said uncle, for which we signed 
two receipts of the same tenor." 

D'Alton, in his Appendix to King James's Army List, states that "in 
1605 Sir Willam Taafe had a grant in Muskerry of the entire territory of 
Ifflonloe, containing twenty-eight small carucates or townlands," which 
he says was "the property of Daniel Mac Conogher O'Mahony of Rossbrin 
Castle, attainted for taking part in the Desmond Insurrection." This latter 
assertion is simply an erroneous guess of one unacquainted with Co. Cork 
geography or tribal history. The owner of Rossbrin belonged to a differ- 
ent sept of the clan, and had no connection with Muskerry. A State paper 
about the lands that he forfeited will be quoted later on. It is not credible 
that Ifflonloe was confiscated in 16 15 and handed over to Taaffe, as no one 
of its landowners is mentioned among the "attainted," and no passage 
in the Calendar of State Papers for 1605 bears out D'Alton's assertion. 
But he undoubtedly must have seen some record giving the number of 
townlands in the district, which number exactly corresponds with the tradi- 
tional account given to the present writer many years ago by an old man 
who was the grandson of one of the legatees above mentioned. There is 
no proof that the district was confiscated before the Cromwellian period. 

To some one of the three septs belonged Conogher O'Mahony, a mem- 
ber of the Jesuit Order, who was born in Muskerry, according to Ware 
[Irish Writers, p. 121-122), studied, as he tells us himself, in Spain, and 
wrote in 1645 a book which caused a considerable commotion and was 
vehemently assailed foy more than one party. The title of the book is 
" Disputatio Apologetica de Jure Regni Hiberniae adversus Haereticus 
Anglos, Auctore Constantino Marulo, Artium et S. Theologiae Magistro. 
Francofurti, 1645." That it was written in some Continental 
country, there appears to be intrinsic evidence, for in referring 
his readers to Irish histories, he says that he had not access 
to them when he was writing. He openly admitted the author- 
ship in Lisbon (Ware, Irish Writers), and certainly selected a 
pseudonym not calculated to secure perfect concealment, as ' ' Constan- 
tinus " was one of the two Latinized forms employed for Conogher, a 
Christian name that had become almost peculiar to those who bore his 
surname at that period. It is in point of form a scholastic treatise of 
about one hundred pages (quarto), in which various arguments are adduced 
to prove that the Kings of England never acquired a just title to Ireland, 
either by Henry the Second's invasion, or by subsequent prescription; that 
even if they did, they had forfeited all right by their tyranny; that every 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. IO3 

Community, be it a kingdom or be it a republic, has the right to depose 
a tyrant (p. 65) who by plundering, oppressing and persecuting the people 
broke the virtual contract that existed between the governor and the 
governed (p. 72). Here we have a curious anticipation of the argument 
from the violation of the "original compact," set forth in the English Act 
of Parliament, which, forty-four years afterwards, declared the deposition 
of James II. After concluding his arguments and replying to objections, he 
then subjoins, by way of appendix, an " Exhortatio," or rhetorical address, 
in which, having dwelt on the confiscations and persecutions, he strongly 
urges the Irish people to shake off the yoke of the English King and elect 
as King one of their own race and faith ; they should imitate other nations 
(whom he enumerates) that had kings of their own race. He exhorts them 
to persevere in the war; that they had good generals and brave soldiers, 
and sufficient resources in the tributes that could be withheld from the 
English King. He then urges them either to extirpate their enemies or 
expel them from Ireland (vel occidatis vel ex Hiberniae finibus expellatis). 
This passage has been unfairly represented as an incitement to an indis- 
criminate massacre or assassination. But in the context — in the paragraph 
(19) preceding that passage and in the sentence following it — he is expressly 
speaking of ordinary warfare. When this work began to circulate in Ire- 
land the Government made every effort to discover the author that he might 
be tried for high treason. In Hardiman's Hist, of Galway we find that the 
Mayor and burgesses of that loyal town in 1646 signalised themselves by de- 
nouncing, "by way of prevention," the book of which they had failed to 
obtain a copy — ^"We do adjure and detest the damnable and seditious book 
and the doctrine therein contained, and will censure and damn the same with 
the author thereof, if we light on them, to scorching and revengeful fire." 
In the following year the Supreme Council of the Confederation of Kil- 
kenny condemned the book and ordered it to be burned. Ware makes 
the improbable statement that this was done "against the will of the 
Nuncio Rinuccini, who saved from punishment John Bane, parish priest of 
Athlone, on whom a book was found." Ware asserts that "the Supreme 
Council were ashamed of the too bold advances made in this book, and as it 
tended to create disunion between the Irish of race and the Irish of blood, 
condemned it, &c." Cox, as might be expected, says that " it was burned 
for form sake, but allowed to be privately dispersed." In the prefix to 
his History he says that "the advice of Mr. Mahonyi was not to make a 
priest of any of the English race, nor trust any that are. " Neither Ware nor 
Cox can have read this work, which makes no distinction at all between 
the Celtic Catholics and those of Norman descent. To form a fair estimate 
of the Disputatio Apologetica, it should be borne in mind that for more than 
a century before 1645 English statesmen and political writers had advocated 
the extermination of the Irish people. This inhuman policy had been put 
forward, first by the Privy Council in 1540 (Gibson, Hist of Cork, vol. i., 
154) then by Essex^ in 1574, by Lord Cork, whose letter Hardiman quotes, 
and by Spenser in his View of the State of Ireland. It was vehemently sup- 
ported by Milton. Some time before the Rebellion of 1641, according to 

9 Essex (the first Earl) writing to Elizabeth in 1574 contrasts the relative advantages of 
conquest and extirpation :— "The force which shall bring about the one, shall do the other, and 
it may be done without any show that such a thing is meant." History records his failure and 
miserable end. 



104 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Carte {Life of Ormond) " Sir W. Parsons, a * Lord Justice,' declared at a 
banquet in Dublin that in twelve months a Catholic would not be seen in 
Ireland." The right of deposing a tyrannical sovereign was defended by 
Milton in his Tenure of Kings and Magistrates in 1649, and became an 
accepted political doctrine in England before the end of the century. The 
author of the Diisputatio Apologetica and the dominant party in England 
and among the English colonists in Ireland held the same principles in 
political affairs, but applied them in opposite directions. The author, says 
Ware, " was an old man in 1650, but the year of his death is not known." 

The book had become very rare and was almost forgotten when, in 
order, it is said, to prejudice the cause of Catholic Emancipation, fifty 
copies were reprinted in Dublin before 1829. 

In the next part the history of the Western Sept of Ivagha will be 
commenced. 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. IO5 



PART VI. 1 

Origin of the name Ivagha. Hi Cacac tllun'Mn, the Clan Eochy of 
Munster (as has been previously stated), was the original name of the 
tribe, which, since the close of the eleventh century, has been called 
after one of its chieftains of that century, Mahon, son of Cian. It 
became in process of time, like other tribal names, territorial. The 
word has clearly a territorial signification in the Book of Rights 
(circa a.d. 1014) in which the head of the Sept is referred to as ^Ri 6n-eACAC 
n-oll,the adjective meaning "great" in the sense of extensive. " This name, 
or, to speak with strict accuracy, its prepositional form, tJit) Gacac, 
has been anglicised Ivagha (sometimes Evagha) in English State papers 
and historical works, since the middle of the sixteenth century. The 
territory of an Ulster tribe which bore the same Irish name has been 
anglicised Iveagh. It is an advantage that the habitats of two similarly 
named but unrelated tribes should be thus discriminated ; in deviating 
from this established usage a mistake was made by O 'Grady (Silva 
Gadelica) and by the translator of the Vision of Mac CongUnne. 

The' application of this territorial name varied with the vicissitudes 
of the tribe. 

In the history of South Munster there is no fact attested by more 
abundant evidence (evidence unknown to Smith and Gibson) than that the 
Sept-land of the Ui Eachach Mumhan during many centuries extended 
from Cork to the Mizen Head, as one continuous territory, including 
Kinelea and Muskerry, and vi^as ruled by a chief whose principal residence 
was Rath Rathleann, in Kinelmeky. When stating in a previous page 
that the territory had expanded to those dimensions before the year a.d. 
800, the present writer had not then discovered the ancient Annals known 
to Sir James Ware as "The Munster Annals," and erroneously classed 
in the R. I. Academy as "Annals of Innisf alien. " From this authority 
we learn that, instead of being the gradual growth of centuries between 
the time of Core and a.d. 800, the territory above defined was the patri- 

1 This is a suitable occasion for indicating two misleading productions which have 
been considered to be sources of information about the present subject. I. The first is an 
article of two pages which appeared in the "Cork Hist, and Arch. Journal," year 1897, 
vol. iii., 2nd Series, p. 304, written as a review of a contribution of Mr. Harold Frederic's 
to the New York "Times." The two pages — with the exception of one passage quoted and 
applied from the Four Masters — are simply a tissue of misstatements. The reckless 
writer went to his imagination for some of his "facts" ; others he derived from State papers 
bearing on the affairs of the Eastern Sept, which he adapted to the Western by leaving 
out the words that refer to Kinelmeky and its circumstances in 1588. To refute his errors 
in detail would be a waste of time and space. II. The next is a paper of the Herald 
Office, A.D. 1600, containing a pedigree, Avith accompanying notes, published in the new 
Ed. of Smith's "Cork," pp. 269 and 270. Of the pedigree it is enough to say that (down 
to A.D. 1300) it is utterly at variance with Duald Mac Firbis and all the Irish genealogical 
MSS. in the R. I. Academy and the Library of T.C.D. The notes are equally erroneous 
as regards the mediaeval history of the Sept. In preparing for a new edition of Smith's 
"Cork," it would be well to expunge this paper. 

' Bacai-o, nominative ; Cacac, genitive ; «i Cacac, descendents of Eochy, is a nominative 
plural ; 6n-eACAc, genitive plural ; nib-eACAc, dative plural, or "prepositional." 



I06 THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

mony; which the eponymous ancestor of the Tribe;,^ Eochy, inherited from 
his father, Cas (the second son of Core), who governed, likewise:, the 
district between Cork and Carn Thierna, near Fermoy. By the same 
Annalist, under the year 979, Carn Thierna and Carn Ui Neid (the Mizen 
Head), are given as limits of the Sept-land during the chieftainship of Cian, 
A.D. 979 — 1014. This assertion is confirmed by topographical evidence 
and oral tradition. WindelC* explored an ancient Fort, not many miles 
north of Carn Thierna, which he found to bear the name of "Lios Ratha 
Cian (recte "Cein, genitive of Cian), and to have attached to it the local 
tradition that "it was the head of all the forts in the County." In the 
time of Mahon, as we learn from the Leahhar Oiris, the entire country 
that he ruled over was divided into nine districts or subdenominations — 
DAOib-ponn. One of these was the Fonn-Iartharach or "Western Land," 
whose extent is determined for us by the circumstance that it be- 
came a "Decanatus" or Deanery, which comprised the parishes of 
"Kilmoe, Kilmacomogue, Scoole (SchuU), Caheragh, Kilcrohane, and 
Durrus. " To this the name Ivagha was narrowed after the division of the 
Sept. In this "Western Land" the Ri Rathleann had in the eighth 
century one of the three Duns which by custom and the Brehon law a Ri 
was expected to have. This was Dun Coba at the boundary of Ivagha 
and Corca Laidhe, as is stated by the author of the Vision of Mac Con- 
glinne, which, though containing fictitious incidents, introduces personages 
and place-names, known from other sources to be historical. 

When stating that the district which has been thus, described was a 
part of the possessions of the Chief of Rathleann, we do not mean to say 
that there were no families in it e,xoept those of the dominant tribe. It is 
quite possible that some families of the Corca Laidhe, or of a tribe that 
preceded them, may have been permitted to remain as tributaries, and 
continued to live in their ancient homes in the eleventh and twelfth cen- 
turies. But of this there is no evidence. Topography attests that the 
Ui Baire (for instance) were at one time seated in Muintervary, but when, 
or how long, it cannot say. O'Daly, O'Glavin, and O'Mehigan held 
portions of land from the Chieftain of Ivagha by virtue of their hereditary 
functions, as will be shown later on. 

There was a time when the authority of O'Heerin's descriptive poem 
used to be invoked to determine beyond question the habitats of tribes in 
Munster. But such an estimate of O'Heerin's authority will be held by 
no one who has read with care the critical notes of Dr. O' Donovan in his 
edition of the Topographical Poem, and later research has discovered 
errors in the poem which escaped the notice of that learned editor. The 

3 Its entries about events of the eleventh century coincide verbally with those that 
Sir James Ware quotes from "Munster Annals." These Annals open abruptly w^ith the 
passage about the patrimony of Cas, brother of Aengus, contemporary of St. Patrick : — 
CU1-0 CAif (mic Cmtic mic Otiott -plAnbis, mic pACA muitteACAin mic CoJAin m6i|i, 
tTlic Otiolt OUiim) ■ooti mutriAn. 1. 6 Cof(|iA CijeAfiriA a n-Aice peAiiA-tTluise, 50 CA-pti Hi 
nei-o, lAm te CjiuACAin, Ajtif o ftiAb-CAoin, a n-Aice ha jtAtrA 50 -pAiiige tQAX". 

The transcriber took "Cuirc" to be an abbreviation of "Cormaic" ; this error is here 
rectified. Sliabh Caoin, the northern boundary, is the hill east of Macroom, afterwards 
Sliabh Min, now corrupted to Sleaveen, Flan, a successor of Cas, made the "Muskerry 
Paps" (and the Blackwater) the northern boundary. See Irish quatrain in Smith's 
"Cork," New Ed., p. 14. 

4 Windele Papers, R. I. Acad., Cork Topography, Excursion to Kilmaclenin. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I07 

Bard was unable to acquire his iiifonnation, invariably, from a personal 
investi'^'ation in each tribcland, and frequently had recourse to conjecture 
and hearsay, and to books that gave not the historical but the semi- 
mythical occupiers of a district. The g^reatest of his blunders, that which 
places the 0'Callag"han tribe in Bearra and Kinelca, has been already com- 
mented on. In one of the above-mentioned parishes, Kilmocommoge, he 
placed, around Bantry, the tribe of "O'Beke of the race of Fergus of 
Uladh," but no such tribe is known to history, tradition or topography. 
The origin of this error may be easily: explained. He heard or read 
that there was by the western coast a Cineal mBeicc — the "race of Beke, 
son of Fergus," and, not being familiar with this earlier portion of the 
Genealof^y of the O'Mahonys, erroneously inferred the existence of a tribe 
of O'Beke sprung from a Fergus whom he supposed to be the Fergus 
whose name was more familiar to him, namely, Fergus Mac Roigh, the exiled 
northern king. In the present History, O'Heerin has been quoted only 
in confirmation of facts already sufficiently proved from some other source. 

Though the Fonn-Iartharach was wrested from the Corca Laidhe at a 
very remote date, a considerable number of the tribal names of the dis- 
placed Sept, which had become place-names, have come down to the 
present time, affording, as Canon Lyons acutely pointed out (in his article 
on the Western place-names), a confirmation of the old Irish tract, The 
Genealogy of Corca Laidhe. But it would be unreasonable to assume that 
all the place-names of Ivagha are of Corca Laidhe origin, and that none 
of them were derived from the Sept of the Ui Eachach who occupied the 
territory for twelve centuries. It may be fairly maintained that 
Leacan Mic Aedha and Scrahan Ui Laeghere, with Doire Laeghere 
(Derry Leary), were derived from xAedh and Laeghere, the ancestors of 
the two branches of the Ui Eachach. Rossbrin (spelled always in Irish, 
Ror iDt^om) was called after Bron, grandfather of Cian, Balteen Macraith 
was a portion of the lands of the Tanist Macraith, son of Dermod O'Mahon, 
slain in battle in 1259. So, also, it appears to be beyond doubt that the 
large territory, east of the Fonn-Iartharach, Clan Shealbaigh, received its 
name from one of the Ui Eachach chiefs of the seventh century, Selbach 
(in praise of whose father and ancestors there is extant a distich in the 
Book of Ballymote, p. 173), and not from the Corca Laidhe Clan-Sheal- 
baigh, one of the nine very small and obscure families of the district of 
O'Dongaile. 

It was in consequence of the long coast line of this region that the 
tribe got the reputation for seamanship referred to by the author of the 
Wars of the Gael and Gaill, when stating that they helped Brian in a 
naval expedition. From this quarter, also,^ in the year 1209, was brought 
in ships a reinforcement to Kinelea, to Donogh na Himerce O'M., then 
engaged in resisting the invasion of Finin of Leac Laghtin MacCarthy 
(so called "a loco occisionis"). The battle was an indecisive one, as the 
Annalist only records that "many persons fell on that occasion." 

The name Ardmanagh (Aii-o-nA-m^n^c), "the height of the monks," 
proclaims, with evidence as satisfactory as any written record could afford, 
the fact that in the townland which is still so named there once existed 

5 (Dublin) ''Annals of Innisf alien." 



I08 THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

a monastery. In another townland, called Bawnaknockane, there were 
said to be the remains of an ancient religious house (Lewis's Topo- 
graphical Dictionary, 1837). There had also been erected by: some Head 
of the Sept, or with his necessary co-operation, a "Schola," or seat of 
learning, said to have been "in connection with the School of Ross" — 
which probably means nothing more than that its first teachers were 
invited from that more ancient foundation. Its memory is preserved in 
the name of the parish, Schull — an altered form of Schola — which, under 
the name "Scoole, " is mentioned with other parishes in a Bull of Innocent 
III. confirming the privileges of the See of Cork, in the year 1199. In 
subsequent official documents the parish is called "Parochia S. Mariae de 
Schola." As the Schola must have been a considerable time in existence 
before it could impart its name to a very extensive district around it, we 
may infer that its erection was long anterior to the Norman invasion. Its 
ruins have been identified in the townland of South Schull. 

The organization of the early Irish Church was distinctly tribal, whether 
or not we believe to be authentic the statement of the Leahhar Breac : — 
"Patrick, in his testament, said 'Let there be a chief bishop to every 
tribe in Ireland.' " The ancient diocese of Cork was identified with the 
tribeland of Mahon and his predecessors, who, accordingly, provided a 
most liberal endowment for their spiritual head. The greater part of that 
endowment was in the Fonn-Iartharach — ^nine ploughlands in Schull ; the 
adjoining island of Mawninnish (Castle Island) one ploughland and a half; 
the island called the West Calves, one ploughland and a half ; at 
Cruachan (Crookhaven) one ploughland and a half ; three ploughlands 
in Kilcrohane and three in Kilmocommogue, making a total of twenty-five 
and a half ploughlands in the west. In the middle and eastern portions 
of the tribeland fourteen ploughlands were set apart for the same purpose. 
The clansmen, of course, continued to occupy those lands, paying to the 
See of Cork the rent or dues that they would have to pay to the chief if 
he retained those lands for himself. 

When a division of the Sept became inevitable, in the circumstances 
previously narrated, after the year 1260, Dermod M6r, its acknowledged 
Head, might have elected to remain at Rath Rathleann and retain the 
fertile lands of Kinelmeky, to which was still attached the district of West 
Muskerry, afterwards distributed among the three minor septs or subsepts 
of the clan. But he made choice of the "Western Land" for himself and 
his posterity, and his brother, Concobar, became Chief of Kinelmeky. 
The motives of this preference for the distant and less fertile region in 
West Cork are stated by Sir Richard Cox with tolerable accuracy, but not 
without some conjectures suggested by prejudice, in his MS., "Carberiae 
Notitia," compiled in 1686 :— "The best and the eldest branch of this 
family was O 'Mahon Fune (Fionn), who resided in West Carbery, and 
was commonly called O 'Mahon Onyerer (recte Aniarthair), or "of the 
West." His chief seats were Ardintenant and ''Three Castle Head, and 
he is said to have had twelve castles of his own. The other branch was 
O 'Mahon Carbery, and his seat was at Castle Mahon. . , . And it is 

6 Smith's "Hist, of Cork," p. 128. Rent Roll of the Diocese of Cork, 

7 Another castle in which he used to reside was Ballydevlin. (Inquisition 
of 1612.) 



THE O MAHONYS OF KTNELMEKY AND IVAGHA. IO9 

observable that the prinripal Irish always kept as near the sea ps they 
could, thoug-h in the most barren and mountainous countries. And the 
reasons were, that ihcy had the profits of their creeks and havens. They 
had correspondence with and received advantages from Spain and other 
foreign countries ; they were the freer from the English forces, and conse- 
quently they had greater liberty of tyrannizing over their followers and 
neighbours and of securing- such prey as they could take. Thus we see 
O'SuUivan Mor in Dunkerron, MacCarthy Mor in Iverath, and the g^reat 
O'Mahon in Ivag^ha and Muintervarry, &c." The special advantag-es, 
then, of the "Western Land" were (i) the wealth derived directly from the 
fisheries, (2) the harbour dues, and (3) the facility' afforded for trading- 
with foreign nations. The importance of Ivagha as centre of the fisheries 
is attested by Camden (Britannia, 1586): "Tertium promontorium est 
Evaugh (Ivagha) inter Bantre et Baltimore, qui copiosa halecum captura 
notissimus est sinus"; and in a MS. in the British Museum (Lansdowne 
242) by a contemporary of Cox: "But none of the fisheries of Munster 
are so well known as is the promontory of Evagh (Ivagha), whereunto 
every year a g-reat fleet of Spaniards and Portuguese used to resort even in 
the midst of ye winter to fish also for cod." The letter of the citizens 
of Cork in 1450 (quoted on a former occasion) dwells on the larg-e Incomes 
that the English adventurers on the south and west coasts — the "Lords 
Caro (Carew), Arundel, and Sliney derived from creeks and havens." 

The dues exacted from the foreign vessels which made use of the 
harbours of Crookhaven, Schull, Dunmanus, &c., must have been con- 
siderable, but no particulars about them are given in the ^Inquisition 
about the property of an Ivagha chief, Conor Fionn O'Mahony^ who died 
in 1592. The Inquisition held about twenty years after his death is very 
imperfect ; it sets forth the deceased Chief's castles and ploughlands, but is 
silent about the amount of his harbour dues and imperfect as to his tributes 
from his kinsmen, the other proprietors of castles in his tribeland. But we 
may assume that the harbour dues were similar to those demanded at 
Baltimore, of which there is an account in the Inquisition held on Fineen 
O'Driscoll. O'SuUivan Beare's income from such dues was estimated by 
Carew at three hundred pounds a year, and at five hundred a year by the 
author of the Pacata Hihernia, equiValent to eight or ten times that 
amount of money at the present day. The income from the same source 
obtained by the Chief of Ivagha must have been still more considerable, as 
the peninsula was situated between two bays, Dunmanus and Baltimore, 
and as it enabled him to build more castles and maintain more horsemen 
for military purposes than any two of the Western tribes. 

Though the sea was the principal source of wealth to the tribe of 
Ivagha, the land, amidst much waste, contained many fertile portions that 
attracted after the ^confiscation many Enghsh settlers. Owing to the 
present treeless condition of the whole peninsula ending in the Mi'zen 
Head, many will be surprised to learn that most of it was well wooded in 
the 1 2th century. In the (Dublin) Annals of Inndsf alien, under the year 
1178, it is recorded that after a defeat by the Dalcassians "the race of, 

8 It was held in Cork ; the Inquisition on O'Driscoll was held in Rosscarbery, where 
evidence about his affairs was easily procurable. 

9 See "Book of Survey and Distribution" (1657), and the names of some of the 
settlers in Smith. 



no THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Eoghan Moi took refuge in the woods of Ivagha." A statement by the 
author of that compilation may require confirmation, but such confirma- 
tion is forthcoming from the topography of the country, which has been 
rightly called "the most enduring of all records." No^'* less than four- 
teen place-names in the peninsula are derived from "Doire," the oak, as, 
e.g., Derrynatra, Derrycarhoon, Derrylahard, &c. And it may reasonably 
be supposed that woods existed in other localiti'es that derived their names 
from some other circumstances, the personal name of a proprietor, the 
proximity of a rath, or a historih event, as, e.g., Lissycaha (the fort of 
the battle). In places that are now wind-swept and cold, the ancient 
woods not only afforded shelter for pasturage, but supplied mast and 
acorn for the reari'ng of swine — the most important food-producing industry 
among the Anglo-Saxons as well as among the Irish. "Forests abounded 
everywhere, and animals were simply turned out and fed on mast, &c. 
Wealthy people, chiefs and even kings, as well as rich farmers, kept 
great herds, which cost little or nothing beyond the pay of the swineherd" 
(Joyce, Social Hist, of Ancient Ireland, vol. ii. , p. 279). See the extract 
already quoted from Robert Payne's account of Kinelmeky. Names com- 
pounded with "Doire" do not imply that woods consisted solely of oak 
trees; hazel trees were often, perhaps generally, intermixed, as is suggested 
by some passages in ancient tales, as, e.g., "Doire-na-nath in which fair- 
nutted hazels grow." Hazel nuts were such an important article of food 
that plentiful nut-harvests were thought worthy of being recorded in the 
Annals of the Four Masters. The Bard O'Heerin, who died in a.d. 1420 
and made his circuit through the South about a.d. 1400, alludes to the 
food-producing woods of Ivagha : — 

"Hi Qacac ^A\^tA^^ t)AnX)A 
'Ouc^TO mott tli tVlAcg^riin^, 
■pionclAT) c^iflinn n^c I^au "Ponn, 
-Af "P^itTiiin An clAV- cno--oonn." 

Dr. O 'Donovan's translation. 

**Ui Eachach of the west of Banba (Ireland) 
Is the great patrimony of O'Mahouna; 
Land of fair mounds, irriguous not undulating, 
Extensive is that plain of brown nuts." 

The means of subsistence were, in all probability, greater in Ivagha in 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, down to the commencement of the 
Desmond war, than they were three centuries after. The direct and 
indirect losses from the destruction of the woods were, assuredly, not com- 
pensated for, in that part of the country, by the adoption of any improved 
system of agriculture in the first quarter of the niheteenth century. 
Accordingly the population must have been much larger in the former 
centuries. In 183 1, according to the census of that year, the population 
of the peninsula of Schull and Kllmoe was twenty-two thousand (Lewis's 
Topographical Dictionary). 

What may have been the fighting strength of the undivided clan in 

10 The late Canon Lyons called attention to this circumstance in his article on 
Place-Names in this "Journal" (vol. ii., year 1893). 



Horse. 


Kerne 


. 26 


120 


. 46 


100. 


10 


200 


. 6 


200 


12 


200 


. 6 


60 



THE o'mAHONYS of KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I 1 1 

A.D. 1 172, or of the Western Branch, about a century later, when it 
possessed nearly all the Fonn-Iartharach, we have no means of even con- 
jecturing. But there is extant Carcw's estimate of the forces of the 
Ivagha sept in its reduced condition in the Tudor period, and of the other 
neighbouring septs. There are other estimates besides Carew's, but they 
are valueless, being made by persons who had no source of information 
except hearsay, whereas Carew is known to have been exceedingly well 
served by his numerous, specially appointed, spies. 

The following is Carew's list'^ of the forces of West Cork and the 
adjoining district of Kerry : — 

O'Mahon of Ivagha ... ... )^ 

O'Mahon of Brin, i.e., of Rossbrin Castle j 
O'Sullivan, Beare, and Bantry 
O'Driscolls of Collimore and Baltimore 
O'Donoghue Mor (Lough Lene) 
O 'Donovan 

O'Mahon was Chieftain of the entire of Ivagha, which included Rossbrin, 
but the very considerable contingent of his cousin and subxjrdinate of 
Rossbrin Castle is mentioned separately, for a reason that will be given 
later on. Carew always speaks of O'Mahon Fionn as the sole Chief, 
whose forces, therefore, were seventy-two horse and two hundred and 
twenty kerne. 

As each horseman had one Daltin or Gilla, in the earlier times, and 
two in the later period (Joyce's Social Hist., i., p. 146), one hundred and 
forty should be added in order to express the total of O'Mahon Fionn's 
forces. The number of horsemen in Ivagha (72) must be regarded as 
relatively large, if we bear in mind that (according to Carew) the English 
cavalry in Munster amounted only to five hundred, and that the contin- 
gents of MacCarthy Reagh and MacCarthy More, in their own tribelands, 
were sixty and forty respectively, though each had a multitude of kernes. 

The peninsula of Ivagha was defended by an exceptionally large 
number of castles. Many of these were built on headlands, the sites of 
prehistoric Forts. Promontory Forts were a conspicuous feature of the 
west and south coast from Duncearmna, on the Old Head of Kinsale, and 
Dundeedy (Galley Head), to Dunlogha, Dunmanus, Dunamark, &c. 
It is singular that they were all called Duns, not Raths. They 
served as look-out stations as well as strongholds in which the inhabitants 
of the coasts could take refuge. From the dawn of Irish history down 
to the middle of the seventeenth century, sea rovers were the terror and 
the scourge of the maritime districts. The ancient tale, Cath Finn 
Tragha, or the "Battle of Ventry," mentions the stations along the coasts 
where watchmen were placed to signal the approach of an unexpected 
invader. Though narrating fictitious events, the tale is to a certain 
extent historical, as the author, like the authors of the most ancient poems 
and tales in all countries, unconsciously reproduces the customs of his own 
time and locality. The Dun had begun (not however in Munster) to be 

11 The list is taken from Mr. McCarthy Glas's "Life of Florence MacCarthy Mor," 
p. 9. 



112 THE O MAliONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

superseded by the castle^^ in the century preceding the Norman Invasion. 
From the first quarter of the 13th century it must have become evident 
to the Irish that the Dun should without delay be discarded for the castle, 
the most effective protection against sea rover and land-plunderer. They 
must have been impressed by the systematic way in which the Norman 
adventurers built castles^^ to secure the advantages they had gained. 
They must have known, too, that "for want of castles the attempts of the 
Anglo-Saxons to revolt against their Norman masters were easily quelled" 
(Hallam's Hist, of Europe, quoting Orderic Vitalis). 

It was during the Chief tainship of Donogh na Himerce O'Mahon 
(ob. 1212), not long after the Invasion, and before the Division of the 
Sept, that the first castle was built in the "Western Land." The original 
Annals of Innisf alien have under the year 1207 the entry : "The Castle of 
Dunlochy was built." This passage is quoted from Duald Mac Firbis's 
English translation, as the edition of the Bodleian original by Dr. O'Connor 
ends at a.d. 1196. "Dunlochy" certainly stands for Dun ^' \,otA, an 
ancient Dun that took its name from the adjacent lake,-^* and was situate 
at the end of the promontory now known as Three Castle Head. On 
this site were built three square towers, at a short distance from one 
another, which, being connected by a wall that also enclosed the lake, 
mayo be considered as one castle. For want of a photograph, an im- 
perfect sketch of this ruined castle Is here reproduced, which some Wiest 
Cork Antiquary sent to Windele in 1840 (Windele's Papers, Cork, 
Topography, R. I. Academy). The name Dunlough still survives as the 
name of the townland which includes Three Castle Head. A writer in 
Bolster's Magaztine in 1827, and Windele's correspondent (above men- 
tioned) state that many legendary tales are related of the castle, and that 
"the Lake was supposed to be haunted by an enchanted woman, whom 
Kean Mahony had seen and then died; whoever saw her died soon after." 
The picturesque and lonely situation of the castle and its gre3.t antiquity 
had set the imagination of the country folk to work. 

Near the eastern point of Schull Harbour, and about a quarter of a mile 
from the western shore of Lough Trasnagh (Roaringwater Bay) v/as 
erected the Castle of Ardintennane, the principal seat of the Chieftain of 

12 References to "Annals Four M." are given in a previous footnote. See Ware's 
"Antiquities," p. 134, about Turl.ugh O'Connor's Castle in Tuam, "the wonderful 
Castle," in 1161. 

13 See the list given by O'Donovan, note to "Annals Four M.,'' years 1215 and 1261. 
In the small County of Carlow?, the key of the Pale, the English had built 148 castles 
before the time of Henry V., as is stated in a letter to that king from the Dublin 
Parliament. It might be expected that the great number of castles built by the 
O'Mahonys of Ivagha would be regarded as evidence of the resources and the foresight 
of the Sept. The straiige comment of Professor W. F. Butler in his "Notes on Carbery" 
("Cork Hist, and Arch. Journal") is that "they had a perfect mania for building castles." 
In keeping with this curious comment is the statement of the same writer that "the most im- 
portant Sept in West Cork was a Sept that, admittedly, had the smallest force, the fewest 
Castles, and the most barren territory. (Inquisition in Appendix to "Annals Four M.") 

14 The compilers of the Dublin "Annals of Innisfallen" misunderstood the original 
Annalist when they added to his entry — "built by the English." They evidently took 
Dunlochy to be Dunloe in Kerry, built by the English in 1215 (O'Donovan). But 
(i) Dunloe in Irish is Dunloich ("Annals F. M.," 1570), which is now pronounced by 
Irish speakers exactly as the English name ; (2) Dunloe Castle would not derive a name 
from a lake a mile distant. A local name would be more likely to be given to it from 
the river Laune, on whose bank it stands. 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 



113 



Ivagha. Its site, like that of Castle Lac, Caherdrinny, Shanid Castle, 
and others of the 13th century, is an ancient Rath, whose inner rampart 
was replaced by a curtain wall ; in this there appear to have been flanking 
towers, one only of which now remains. The wall has been almost com- 





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i/- 




^^T^J^ CaJ-iil Ua.oi 
^ 77in OCoiinor.lls^iJ'O- 




Ik 



Ccub^^^ (^' ^^"^ '^°'^^ 






•6-17 Jo-wn. 



OComur ISj^o. 



pletely destroyed, but the Castle, now commonly called White Castle, is 
in a fairly good state of preservation. It is a solid square keep, whose 
walls are about six feet thick, and as in other castles of its early period, 
the entrance to the staircase leading to the upper rooms is from the out- 
side, over the door on the ground level, which opens into a high vaulted 
basement. The name of the Castle not being found in any southern 

8 



I 14 THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Irish MS,, has been the crux of our etymologists, who assume the accuracy 
of some one of the forms in which the word is spelled in various Inquisi- 
tions and other State Papers — "Ardintennane," "Ardintynan," &c. In 
the Annals of Loch Ce, under the year 1473, the name is spelled Ai^T) ^n 
cennivil, which is easily explained by the Editor as the "Height of the 
beacon, "cetin^tl being the regularly altered form of cemDx.\L, the old Irish 
term for beacon used in the tale "Bruden da Derga. " But then, Northern 
Annalists are sometimes inexact in the spelling of Southern names, and it 
is hard to suppose that several persons, on different occasions, would agree 
in giving "Tennan" as the phonetic rendering of "Tennal. " "Rem in 
medio relinquam. '* 

Two miles from the Chieftain's residence, on the same side of the bay 
and "opposite Horse Island is the ruin of the Castle of Rosbrin, which 
belonged to O'Mahony, being boldly built on a rock which hangs over the 
ocean." So far Smith's description is quite correct, but he goes on to 
say that (on an allegation which shall be considered presently) "Sir Geo. 
Carew demolished it and battered its west wall to the ground." The fact 
is that Carew never attacked the Castle, and that the west wall was not 
battered down but stands erect, and the building might be regarded as in 
a good state of preservation until five years ago, when a considerable 
portion of the east wall was thrown down by lightning. 

On returning from Rosbrin we pass by Castle Island, the Irish name 
for which^^ was Mawninish, i.e.. Middle Island, a name which describes 
its position. Here are the remains of another Castle. Smith's descrip- 
tion of the two next may be adopted: "I proceeded west to Leamcon 
near a good harbour, between Long Island and the continent. 
Here are two Castles built by the Mahonys in ruins. The larger is called 
[Leamcon, otherwise] Black Castle, built on an island to which is a very 
narrow passage easily defensible, and more to the west is Ballydevlin, 
another old seat of the Mahonys." Leamcon Castle cannot be said to 
be "in ruins," except in the sense of being unroofed, as its walls are 
perfect, though, for about two or three feet above the foundation, they 
bear evidence of having been attacked by means of the besieging instru- 
ment called^^ "the Sow." Ballydevlin^^ is described in the (six-inch) 
Ordnance Survey map as "Castle in ruins," but it would seem to have 
been as complete as Leamcon in 1844, when the author of Sketches in 
the South of Ireland wrote: "Look at the Black Castle out there, like 
a solitary watching all day long its prey on its rock-perch. And westward 
still, see the bold and high Ballydevlin ; see how it cuts the clear blue sky 
with its embattled loftiness" — and he adds a boatman's legendary tale 
about this Castle, which is refuted by historical documents. 

Near Crookhaven the ordnance map marks in the townland of Lisa- 
griffin, "Castle in ruins," and in the townland of Castle Mehigan, 
"Castle"; about the latter something will be said later on. To quote 
Smith again: "Then comes Dunmanus Bay, which has its name from 

15 Statement of an old man named Leahy, an Irisli speaker, who was born in the 
island. 

16 See, for an account of this machine, "Miscellany of Celtic Soc," 1849, and 
O'Sullivan Beare ("Hist. Cath."), who quaintly calls it Muc-us Bellicus ! 

1^ Recte Bealdwylin (as in Inquisitions), the "mouth of the flood," as being exposed 
to the south-west waves. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. II5 

Dunmanus Castle, erected on the east bank thereof by that Sept 
(O'Mahonys), and was fortified by walls and flankers. Towards the 
bottom of the bay is Dunbeacon, another Castle of the Mahonys." Dun- 
manus Castle, built on the site of an old Dun, on the shore of Dunmanus 
Harbour, was the most recent, the largest, and the best constructed of 
the Ivagha castles. It is in a very fair state of preservation, but the 
curtain walls and the flanking towers seen by Smith have disappeared. 

On the opposite side of Dunmanus Harbour, in the townland of 
Knockeens, another site of a castle is marked in the ordnance map. 

Dunbeacon Castle, which bears the name of a Dun (not The Doona), 
about a quarter of a mile to the north, was the nearest to the head of 
Dunmanus Bay. It still exists, but in a ruinous condition. Lewis's 
Topographical Dictionary (s.v. Kilmoe) states that there are remains of 
a castle "on the shore of the Lake of Dunkelly. " 

The twelve Castles mentioned by Cox in his Carhevikxe Notitia (and 
Regnum Corcagiense) have now been enumerated. If to this number be 
added the two in Kinelmeky, it will be seen that the two branches of the 
O'Mahony race held exactly one-fourth of the fifty-six castles erected, 
according to Windele, by the native septs in the Co. Cork. 

The Castles in Ivagha were all of the antique type, intended to afford 
security rather than comfort. In none of them was the staircase accessible 
from the door at the ground level, as in the more recent Castles in 
Muskerry, which approximate to the type of the fortified house. We 
learn from Stanihurst^^ that in the vicinity of Irish Castles there were 
provided residences of a more commodious kind, but of less durable struc- 
ture and materials, so that seldom can traces of them be found. There 
is not, for instance, a trace of the "hall with orchard and grove adjoining 
one of O'DriscoU's Castles," in 1537, which would not be heard of in 
our time if that Chieftain had no feud with the citizens of Waterford, 
or if they preserved no MS. record of it. 

This is a suitable occasion for briefly examining the charge of piracy 
and wrecking that has been often made against the western tribes by 
some prejudiced or ill-informed writers. The crushing reply to this 
charge is that for centuries vessels from Spain, Portugal, France, and 
Belgium came annually to the west coast of the County Cork to trade and 
to fish.^^ They would not come habitually to ports that were in the 
occupation of pirates and wreckers. The Chieftains who, as we have seen, 
obtained a large income from harbour dues, and appreciated the oppor- 
tunity of obtaining powder, arms, and other necessaries by trading with 
the foreigners, would assuredly not deter them, or allow them to be 
deterred, from entering their ports. This is no mere conjecture. More 
generally than any others, the O'Driscolls have been accused of inveterate 
piracy, chiefly on the ex-parte evidence of some MSS., written in Water- 
is Cum quibus (Castellis) aulae satis magnae et amplae ... in istis aulis epulari 

solent, raro tamen somnium nisi in castellis capiunt (p. 219) Coenitant autem 

magnifice et opipare (p. 221). "Hibernias Descriptio," Leyden, 1627. 

19 Fretum circumjacens piscibus scatens Hispanos. Gallos, Belgas, piscatores accit. 
(O'S. Beare, "Hist. Cath.," i. 6.). . . . Celebre est Evaugh (Ivagha) promontorium quod 
inter Bantre et Baltimore, &c. ; quo numerosa quotannis Hispanorum et Lusitanoram 
classis, ipso brumali solstitio, ad piscandos etiam asellos confluit. ' Camden from the 
Elzevir "Res publica Hibernis." From a State paper of 1569 it appears that six 
hundred Spanish vessels set sail that year for the Irish Fisheries. 



I I 6 THE o'mAHONVS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

ford, recording a chronic feud between them and that English colony. 
Now, in 1551, the O'Driscoll Chief exercised his ancient tribal jurisdic- 
tion by ordering the execution of eleven men, including three of his own 
clansmen, for piracy. This assumption of authority the Lord Deputy, of 
the time, was not strong enough to punish, but he saved appearances by 
sending "a pardon for the murder" of the men named in the Fiat, "being 
pirates" (Calend. P. R., p. 247). Dermod O'Sullivan Beare (ob. 1549) 
exjacted a large ransom for the liberation of certain English pirates 
(Gibson, Hist, of Cork, [., p. 170). On one occasion, as his grandson 
Philip relates, he seized and hanged the Captain of an English vessel 
fitted up as a ship of war, who was attacking the Spanish trading and 
fishing vessels at the mouth of Berehaven harbour. No doubt, this 
was reported to the English Government as an instance of O'SuUivan's 
piracy. We may safely infer that a similar interest in the protection of 
foreign vessels must have induced O'Mahony of Ivagha to repress pirates, 
as his neighbours did, though he may not have gone so far as to put 
them to death ; and thus the State Papers would contain no record of his 
action. It is literally true that there is not a single contemporary docu- 
ment which makes a charge of piracy, or of aiding or abetting piracy, 
against the Chieftain of Ivagha or against any of his Sept, with one solitary 
exception, the owner of Rosbrin Castle in 1562. The question whether 
the English vessel which Donald Mac Conogher O'M. attempted unsuc- 
cessfully to seize was an innocent merchantman or one of the predatory 
kind that O'Sullivan dealt with, will be considered later on; for the present 
it is enough to say that the judgment pronounced against him was that 
of "the port pirates and piratical mayors and Council men" (as Mr. 
Gibson calls them) of the City of Cork about that period. It has been contened 
by some that the position of several of the Castles of Ivagha implied that 
they were built for the purpose of piracy. This is a futile argument. A 
fort near a harbour or cove was necessary to secure the payment of the 
harbour dues, and to store the dues when paid, as they usually were, in 
kind. Smith relates that "King Edward the Sixth in 1552 was advised by 
his Parliament to build a Fort at Baltimore to oblige foreign fishermen 
to pay tribute" {Hist, of Cork, bk. ii., ch. 2). 20 

After the Septs were extinguished, the people of the South and West 
coasts, no longer restrained by the controlling hand of a Chieftain, may 
have lapsed for a time (until England's rule was better established) into 
the practices which are unwarrantably attributed to their predecessors 
who had lived under the Tribal system. 

After this topographical and general account of Ivagha, we shall proceed 
to set forth the succession of the Chieftains and the events connected with 
them down to the extinction of the Sept. 

The opinion which has been already expressed (supra. Part Iv. p. 71) 
that Dermod Mor, for some time Head of the undivided Sept, became the 
first Chieftain of the Western, separated, portion of it, may be further 
confirmed by the fact that the western tribal genealogist (Irish MS., 23; 

20 Mrs. Green, in her recently published "Making and Unmaking of Ireland," 
pp. 137-140, gives proofs of the systematic attempt made in the 15th and i6th centuries 
to prevent foreign vessels from trading with the Irish, and shows that about 1540-1570 
the southern coasts were infested by a large number of English pirates. 



THE o'mAHONVS OF KIMELMEKY AND IVAGHA. ll) 

H. i.e. R.I.Acad.) prefixed to the entire series of Ivagha Chicls the designa- 
tion "Clann Diarmada." "Clan Tadhg" would, surely, be the designation 
chosen if his son was the first of the Western line, and thus made an epoch 
in the tribal history. The official appellation of each of this line of 
Chieftains was "Lord of Fonn lartharach" [Annals of Four Masters and of 
Loch C6). The original extent of the district from which they derived 
their appellation has been already described. Dermod, however, did not 
possess this ancient district of his tribe in its integrity. From it had been 
detached Kilmocommogue,-^ in the heart of which the Marquis Carew had 
built his Castle of Dunamark, in 1215. Possibly, too, Caheragh, during 
the contests with Donal Got McCarthy ^^ and his son, Fineen, "of 
Ringrone," had been encroached on (as it certainly was in the course of 
the next century) ; of this, however, there is no evidence. But he still 
preserved not only the peninsula ending in the Mizen Head, and containing 
the parishes of Schull and Kilmoe, but also that which then was called 
(as it is now) Muintervary, and comprised the parishes of Durrus and 
Kilcrohane. The larger portion of this latter region was bestowed by 
Dermod Mor on a branch of the bardic family of O'Daly. A well-endowed 
hereditary family of Bards was considered to be an indispensable appendage 
of every considerable Chieftain's establishment. Cox, who consulted Irish 
Antiquaries (as he more than once asserts), when composing his "Carberiae 
Notitia" and "Regnum Corcagiense," writes: — "The territory of Muin- 
tervary was, according to Irish custom, given to O'Daly, who was succes- 
sively Bard to O'Mahon and to Carew." This plainly implies that the 
family of O'Daly that settled in the West were originally bards of the 
O'Mahons,^^ and received from them an endowment in the land mentioned. 
The fact that some^^ O'Dalys were afterwards found to be bards to Carew, 
during the comparatively short period that the Carews flourished in West 
Cork, would by no means prove that the heads of that branch detached 
themselves from the Chief who had endowed them with their land. The 
O'Dalys continued to hold the land assigned to them down to 1641. They 

2r This district includes Bantry- There may be something in Smith's derivation of 
that name from ''Beant Mac Fariola (recte Fearchealla), a descendant of the O'Donovans 
and O'Mahonys," notwithstanding the clumsy conclusion of his sentence. His informant 
probably told him that Beant was of Eoghanacht origin, like the two clans mentioned. 
In a note on the genealogy of the O'Mnhonys in the "Book of Munster," Duald Mac 
Firbis traces Fearceall to Core, King of Munster, as follows: — "Fearcheall mac Cinfaola, 
mic Aodha-Finn, mic Criomthan, mic Cobthaigh, mic Duach,^ mic Cairbre, mic Cuirc, 
mic Luighdach." Here it may be noted as significant, that there was an ancient parish 
of Duach in the district known as Ui Cairbre (Carbery). The majority,, however, of this 
Cairbre's race settled in Kerry. Beantraighe would mean descendants of Beant, as 
Ciaraighe the descendants of Ciar, Muscraighe, the race of Muse, &c. The Beantraigh 
in Wexford may have been a different race, as the Ui Eachach Uladh were of a different 
origin from their southern namesakes. 

22 Canon Lyons ("Cork Hist, and Arch. Journal," 1894) conjectured that the contest 
with Donal Got McCarthy "took place at Cahir (near Ballineen) called CAit|i riA 5-cnAiTi." 
The conjecture is unfounded. The scene of the combat is called in Carew"s Lambeth 
pedigree of the O'M., Carrigdourtheacht — wherever that may be. The name of the Cahir 
fort is probably prehistoric. It is incredible that in the 13th century the bodies of the 
slain were allowed to remain unburied, and that their whitened bones gave a name to a 
place. 

23 See also Smith, p. rS, new Ed. 

24 The Head of the O'Daly Clan was a Chieftain in Westmeath. "There was no 
family," says O'Donovan, "to which the Bardic Literature of Ireland is more indebted." 
A branch settled in Munster in the twelfth century. 



Il8 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

built a castle, and the Ordnance Map shows, besides, a ruin named 
"O'Daly's Bardic School." How long they continued to perform their 
original functions of Bards and Chronicleis for the Chieftains of Ivagha 
cannot now be known. Another portion of Muintervary ^^ was given to the 
O'Glavins, "stewards or termons of the O'Mahons." The name of this 
ancient family is preserved in the place-name Carran Ui Glavine, near the 
Mizen Head, which was their origmal habitat. But the entire of Muin- 
tervary was not made over to O'Daly arid O'Glavin. The Chieftain's rela- 
tives retained a considerable portion. At the time of the Confiscation of 
1641, we find in the "Book of Survey and Distribution" (1657) that 
"Dermod O'Mahony, Irish Papist," was dispossessed of more than a 
thousand acres in Kilcrohane. In process of time, if not from the beginning 
of the new chieftaincy, the western O'Mahony employed another Bardic 
family, that of O'Mehigan,"^^ and endowed them with some three hundred 
acres of land in Kilmoe (as appears from the Inquisition of Dermod 
O'Mehigan taken in 1623), and with the wardership of a castle — Castle 
Mehigan — built by the Chieftain, as, of course, it could not have been built 
from their own limited resources. As the names O'Glavin and Mehigan 
are not in the "Genealogy of Corcalaidhe," those families were, in all 
probability, branches of the old Ui Eachach tribe in the West. 

We have already (Part i. supra) dealt with the fiction that it was from 
Carew that the first Head of the Western Sept obtained "the lordship of 
Ivagha" — which, as has been amply proved, he derived from a long line of 
ancestors, commencing with Cas, son of Core, in the fifth century. It may 
be interesting to trace the genesis of the "Herald Office" fable, which well 
exemplifies that of the "Three Black Crows." In a MS. now in the 
Lambeth Library, Sir George Carew had written, doubtless from his family 
archives, ^^ that "Dermod O'Mahon married the daughter of the Marquis 
Carew, and had with her Innisfodda (Long Island) and Callow-Chrage (a 
ploughland) near Skull-Haven" — lands which belonged to Dermod 's terri- 
tory, and which Carew restored in this manner. This very limited statement 
in the Carew archives is found in Camden's Britannia (1586) expanded into 
the declaration that "the O'Mahons got ample estates in the promontory 
of Ivagha through the kindness and favour of Marquis Carew. ^^ The 
"Herald Office" in 1600 (quoted in new ed. of Smith's Cork) improved on 
Camden, as follows: — "And he (Carew) did make O'Mahon lord of 
Ivagha," adding that "the O'Mahons do confess that they hold from 
Carew." The writer of this stuff was in a state of equal ignorance as to 
the early history of the O'Mahons and the history of the Carews in West 

25 Muintervary is not, as has been conjectured, Tuovintirrydorke in McCarthy Reagh's 
Inquisition. The Muinter Doirc were a Corcalaidhe family who gave name to another 
district. 

26 Eoin Masach O'Mehigan was a wandering member of this family and the author 
of an elegy on O'Driscoll's son, given in the Miscell. Celtic Society, 1849. 

2 7 He thus corrects the Lambeth pedigree, which erroneously says that Dermod mar- 
ried the daughter of McCarthy Reagh. Carew also says that Dermod's widow married 
"Donal Cham from whom the branch of McCarthy Reagh." This McCarthy cannot be 
identified. Mr. McCarthy Glas thinks that Donal Caomh was meant (1311-1320), but 
Carew always spells phonetically, and "Cam" is not Caomh ; besides, Donal Caomh was 
a contemporary of Dennod's great-grandson, Dermod More II. 

2 8 In hoc promontorio, Evaugh, O'Mahoni ampla praedia beneficentia M. Carew 
acceperunt. Camdeni Britannia, 1586. 









1 


^^^^^^^^^^H^^^?^!!«SS^^| 


M 




^^^^KKS^j^^j^^^^ 



DuNMANUs Castle. 




Ardintennane Castle. 



THE OMAIIONYS OF KINELMEKV AND IVAGHA. II9 

Cork. In the general uprising of the Irish of South Munsler, consequent 
on the victory at Callaa near Kcnmare, and some other battles afterwards, 
Carew's Castle of Dunamark was burned and his power destroyed, the 
same fate befalling- Arundel, Sliney and other adventurers. ^° There is not 
a trace of a Carew discoverable in West Cork in 1300. Sir Peter Carew, in 
the statement of his case in 1567 (Smith's Cork, new Ed..), candidly ad- 
mitted that "they were by the Civil Wars expuhed," referring to the battles 
above mentioned. He does not say that they "withdrew to take part in the 
Wars of the Roses," the fiction by which colonists in 1450^° sought to ex- 
plain the decay of the English interest in the Co. Cork. The lands of the 
Carews were, says Sir Peter, "occupied by others who do now claim the 
same for their inlieritance" — instead of admitting that they held from the 
"expulsed" Care'vs, as the Herald Of^ce writer ^^ pretended. The fact 
is,'"'- that the existence of the Carews in West Cork had been forgotten or 
was known cnly to antiquaries, when Sir Peter Carew came over from 
England in 1567 with "a forged roll," as O'Donovan says, to put forward 
his preposterous claim, founded on the Charter ^^ of Henry II., empowering 
Fitzstephen to plunder the Irish Septs. This "claim" and the attitude of 
the Irish Chiefs with regard to it have been discussed in a previous page. 

Dermod Mor (whose father died in 1212) must have been advanced in 
years when he took up his new position about 1260, and possibly died not 
long after. He had four sons, Macraith (killed in battle, 1254), Tadhg 
Ricard (called after his Norman grandfather, Richard De Carew), and Donal 
(Irish MS. H. 23, i.e., R.I.Acad). Of the two latter nothing is known. 

Tadhg succeeded to the Chieftaincy. By Tanist Law he was preferred 



2" Dr. O'Donovan writes in a note to "Annals F. Masters," 1261 : — "After this signal 
defeat of the English, Fineen of Ringrone and the Irish Chieftains of South Munster 
burned and levelled the Castles of Dun Mic Tomain, Dunnagall, Dunnalong, Dunnamark, 
etc., and killed their English warders." O'Driscoll repaired and retained Dunnalong and 
Dunnagall. 

3 See Letter of the Citizens of Cork to Lord Deputy Rutland, 1450, quoted in a 
former note. 

31 His document has been gravely quoted as a historical authority in "Notes on 
Carbery" in C. H. & A. "Journal." See a fuller refutation of it in a former footnote. 

32 A curious reminiscence of the Marquis Carew was unconsciously preserved near 
Bearhaven by people who knew nothing about him. Canon Lyons writes in "Cork Hist, 
and Arch. Journal," 1893, p. 265 : — "A curse in common use in Berehaven is Cof -oe 
cAtArri mc mAncttif cuJAC "mav you have a plot of Mac Marcus's land." He adds : 
"Mac Marcus was some cruel middle landlord." I have no doubt that he is mistaken in 
this interpretation, and that the imr^recation, when first used seven centuries ago, meant, 
"May you have a plot of land from the Marquis's son," who was probably a byword for 
cruelty. 

33 Henry the Eighth affected to be more ccnsciei'tious than his predecessor, Henry II., 
for in 1536 he proposed for discussion to his Council, as a dubious question, whether he 
could dispose of all the lands of Ireland- But there is reason to call in question the 
authenticity of the oft-quoted Charter of Henry II., which bears nc date. In 1207, John, 
certainly, treated it as non-existent, without a protest from anyone. He gave a grant 
to Philip De Prendergast of 40 knights' fees between Cork and Innishannon — a portion of 
the "Kingdom of Cork" already given awav by Henry's Charter, if genuine. So also he 
gave to Richard De Cogan the district of "Musgry O'Millane," to hold in fee, &c. Milo 
de Cogan's heirs would not apply for that grant if thev already had a right by Henry's 
Charter to -half the county ; they would be admitting the nullity of the alleged Charter. 
Nor could they, without evoking a protest, have applied for a grant of any of Fitzstephen's 
portion. The "Charter of Henry II." must have been forged after the death of John, 
and the City of Cork excluded from the grant of the "Kingdom of Cork," as the citizens 
would be sure to inquire into the validity of the document if it affected themselves. 



I20 THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

to his nephew, Fineen, son of the eldest brother, Macraith, ancestor of the 
Clan Fineen O'M., whose history has been given. 

Tadhg was succeeded by his son, Donogh an Ratha Dreokin,^* so called 
from the Rath in which he lived before he became Chief. The Fort is 
marked in the Ordnance Map in the townland, now called Rathruane, a 
corrupted form of Rathdreoain, near Ballydehob. It is referred to by Lewis 
(Topogr. Dictionary, s.v. SchuU) : — "At Rathrovane is a fort surrounded 
by a mound of earth and strengthened by a massive stone wall firmly built 
without mortar." Donogh left two sons, Dermod and Tadhg. 

Dermod, known as Dermod Mor II., succeeded his father as the fourth 
Lord of Ivagha. The aggression of the Mac Carthy Reaghs, during the 
latter half of the 13th century, on the three western tribes was not met by 
them with combined action, and Dr. O 'Donovan thinks that the aggression 
was completely successful about 1290, and that all three consented to pay 
tribute. This opinion, however, is not correct. The Chieftains of Ivagha 
continued to resist for a longer time. This is to be inferred from an entry 
in the Annals of Munster under the year 13 19, which states that a force of 
the McCarthys, under the command of "the sons of Finin McCarthy (pre- 
sumably the nephews of Donal Caomh McC. Reagh), came in their long 
boats to Beara to the island of Creagaire (Beare Island) to besiege Dermod 
Mor and his brother, ^^ and continued there for five weeks," that Fineen, 
eldest son of Dermod Mor, brought reinforcements from Ballyrisode, under 
difficulties, as the vessels of Ivagha appear to have been away on some 
expedition under the two other sons of Dermod (Doaail and Dermod 
Og) ; that only one vessel was available ; that when sufficient clansmen had 
been brought over by repeated journeys in the night, the skirmish com- 
menced, with the result that two of Dermod 's family and one of Fineen 
McCarthy's fell, with many followers on both sides ; and finally, Donal and 
Dermod arrived with their ships, "and brought off their own party safely to 
the Carn" (the Mizen Head). This entry is very crudely written, and does 
not explain how the Chief of Ivagha happened to be in Beare Island and in 
possession of a place so strongly fortified that it withstood so long a siege. 
One thing seems clear, that the O' Sullivan clan, which is not referred to at 
all, had not at this date established itself in Beara. This opinion may 
appear tO' be refuted by the entry in the Annals of the Four M., 1320, record- 
ing the erection of the Bantry monastery. But this entry is very question- 

34 So spelled by Duald Mac Firbis in the "Book of Munster." In other MSS., 
Ratha Dreodhain. 

35 Tadhg, called Tadhg an Oir, i.e., of the gold, from his wealth. He was the 
ancestor of the Ui Flon Luadh branch. (Genealogical Table No. III.) It was probably 
not himself, but his son, that left Ivagha and obtained from O'Mahon of Kinelmeky the 
territory of Ui Flon Luadh. 0'Hai+ ("Irish Pedigrees") absurdly states, as if it were an 
unquestionable fact, that from this Teig "of the gold" came the family of Gould — known 
to be one of the old Cork City families of Danish descent. 

The head of the Ui Flon Lua O'M. minor sept was attainted in 1602 for taking part 
in O'Neil's Insurrection. When writing the account of this family, we doubted this fact 
owing to D'Alton's mis-quotation. We have since found the evidence of the attainder 
in a Patent Roll of James I. (1605), of which the following is an abstract : — "Grant from 
the King to Sir Wm. TaafFe (in consideration of faithful services to Queen Elizabeth) of 
the entire territory of Ifflonlua (West), Muskerry, 28 carucates, the lands of Donal Mac 
Conogher O'Mahony, late of Ifflonlua, gentleman, for high treason attainted" — in the 
curious Law. Latin of the time, "pro alta proditione attinctus." D'Alton had confounded 
him with a namesake, "Donal Mac Conogher O'M.," of Rosbrin Castle, attainted by the 
Act of Parliament, 1584, for taking part in the Desmond Insurrection. 



Tini: OMAIIONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGIIA. 121 

able. Ware, who had access to many Irish MS. authorities, ascribes the 
erection to a Dermod O'SuUivan, who died in 1466.^*^ 

Dermod Mor II., in the Lambeth MS. above referred to, is described as 
"living- in 131 1," and wc have just seen that he was alive in 1319,^^ when 
the incident at Beara took place. He is said to have died in the year 
A.D. 1327.^^ Before his death he arranged that "Rosbrin and eighteen 
ploughlands at its foot" should be given to his sons Donal and Dermod. 
He was succeeded by Finccn. The new Chieftain refused to carry out the 
provision made for his brothers by their deceased father. Thereupon Donal 
and Dermod decided to leave Ivagha. Dermod "went to Deasmumhan 
(McCarthy Mor's country in Kerry) and received a hospitable welcome and 
a tract of land from McCarthy," who was doubtless well acquainted with 
his neighbour, the late Chieftain of Ivagha, and probably a rela- 
tive. Donal, the elder of the two brothers, "went to Barrets 
country" (Barony of Barrets), then subject to MacCarthy Mor 
as overlord, ^^ and most probably by MacCarthy's authority or 
desire, obtained all or some of the ploughlands of the parish of Kilnaglory. 
The tribal genealogists kept track of the descendants of the two refugee 
brothers, as may be seen (supra) in Genealogical Table No. iii., under the 
headings "O'Mahony of Kilnagluaire" and "O'Mahony of the Sliocht 
Dermod Og" (the Kerry Branch). From the historical MS. which vouches 
for the foregoing, it may be clearly inferred that Ardintennane and Rosbrin 
Castles were in existence in the time of Dermod Mor. The words "18 
ploughlands at the foot of Rosbrin" mean, surely, "at the foot of" a castle 
not of another townland. And the castle would not have been intended by 
Dermod for the younger sons, if the Castle of Ardintennane were not in 
existence to serv^e as a residence for his successor in the Chieftaincy. 
Dunlogh Castle, or "Three Castles/' whence the name of the south-western 
headland, had been previously built, as has been shown, on the site of an 
ancient Dun which guarded the neighbourhood of the Mizen Head, but 
this Castle would not be a sufficiently central residence for the Ruler of the 
Clan. Ardintennane and Rosbrin Castles may be considered to have been 
built not later than a.d, 1310. 

Fineen, the fifth Lord of Ivagha, had when Tanist shown himself at 
the combat on Bear Island to be resourceful, brave and energetic ; but of his 
career as Chieftain no particulars have been handed down. In the ancient 
tract called the Genealogy of Corcalaidhe (Ed. Dr. O'Donovan, 1849) we 
read that Donchadh, great-grandson of Gasconagh O'DriscoU (slain in 
battle by the English at Tralee, 1234), "had two sons, Macraith and Am- 
laeibh, and Orlaith, daughter of O'Mahouna, was their mother." Fineen, 
son of Dermod Mor, must have been the O'Mahouna referred to. "Orlaith, 
i.e., golden princess, is now obsolete as the name of a female." (Dr. O'D.'s 

36 This historic Clan, forced bv the invaders to leave its ancient tribeland near 
Clonmel in A.D. 1192, established itself in Kerry. But the Clan did not occupy Beara at 
that date, as Mr. J.' M. Burke, B.L., has proved in the June number of "Ivernia," 1909. 

37 In the MS. of the "Munster Annals" in the R.L Acad, the date was accidentally 
omitted, but in the MS. of that work used oy the compiler of the Dublin "Annals of 
Innisfallen," who transcribes this entry, the date was 1319. The compiler arbitrarily 
altered the name "Donal" mto "Cian." 

38 So states Sir William Betham in his account of the Kerry Branch of the O'M., 
but he does not mention his authority. 

39 See "Life of Florence MacCarthy," by Mr. Mac Carthy Glas, p. 33. 



122 The omaiionys of kinelmeky and ivagha. 

-note.) He was succeeded by his son Donal, who was probably the Chieftain 
in 1381, when there occurred another aggression on the part of the 
McCathys. An entry in the Annals of the Four Masters, under the above 
year is as follows : — "Dermod MacCarthy, heir to the Lordship of Desmond, 
was slain by O'Mahony" ; the Dublin Innis fallen Annals add, "of the Fonn 
lartharach." This is not to be understood of as a murder or assassination; 
according to the usage of the Irish Annals, one chief is said to have fallen 
by another, when killed by his soldiers in battle ;'^" if the former meaning 
were intended, some such words as "affil," by treachery, or "dolose," in the 
Latin entries, would have been added. If the entry refers (as it probably 
does) to the tanist of MacCarthy Mor, then it must be held that he was 
assisting McCarthy Reagh in his aggression ; for there is no evidence or 
probability that there was any direct contest between MacCarthy More and 
the Clan of Ivagha. We are not told what was the result of the combat, 
but about this time, or not long after, McCarthy Reagh finally succeeded in 
obtaining tribute. As the tribute exacted was small in amount (about 
£3'^^^) — small even when taking into account the altered value of money and 
commodities — the Clan, which would break out into insurrection against an 
exorbitant or oppressive amount, acquiesced in the payment of a moderate 
amount, as MacCarthy Reagh himself acquiesced in the annual payment 
of a tribute of a hundred beeves to the Earl of Desmond. 

Donal v/as Chieftain in 1383. In that year originated the minor sept 
often referred to in the State papers, the Sliocht Teig O'Mahowne (StioCc 
UxM'OS 111 TnACgAmnA). This is proved by a statement of the chief m.ember 
of this sub-sept, in a Chancery Bill dated Nov. nth, 1623. In that docu- 
ment it is set forth that "the plaintiff is Dermod O'Mahony of Skeagha- 
nore, gentleman, great-grandson of Donogh Mac Dermod O'Mahony, who 
died owner of 22 ploughlands of Sliocht Teig O'Mahowne, '^^ in the Co. 
Cork. Plaintiff's ancestors have been in quiet possession of the lands for 
240 years." We shall subsequently give details about this case against 
the all-grasping Lord Cork's representative, but for the present the docu- 
ment is adduced to fix a date. The Sliocht would, of course, be called 
after its first ancestor, through whom it branched off from the main line. 
Now, the names of the four sons of Donal's successor, Dermod, are re- 
corded, and there was no Teig among them. We may infer that among 
the sons of Donal (about whom no particulars are recorded) there was one 
named Teig, to whom this extraordinary grant of about one-fifth of the 
whole tribeland was given. Though the members of this sub-sept were 
thus made exempt from head rent to chieftains, they would not, according 
to tribal custom, be exempt from other occasioral dues, or from, sending 
horsemen and kernes in time of war. The history of this minor sept has 
been hitherto misapprehended, as also was the position of its territory. It 
has been supposed to have been "South of Clan Teig Roe and West of 



^0 The Four Masters would not have omitted the words "affil" or "Thre Feill" 
(through treachery) if they found the words in the ancient historical MSS. that they had 
before them. On the other hand, the compiler of the Dublin "Annals of Innisfallen," who 
inserted these words, was quite capable of introducing his own conjectures into ancient 
entries, as we have proved in No. 79, p. 127, supra. 

•*! Daniel McC. Reagh's Inquisition, 1636. 

42 There were 36 ploughlands according to Carew ; as only 22 were claimed by 
Dermod, 14 other ploughlands must have been partitioned among his kinsmen. 




Leamcon Castle ("Black Castle"). 




Distant View of Lfamcon Castle. 



tHE o'mAIIONYS of KINKl.M I:;KY AND IVAGHA. 1^3 

Clan Dermot" — altogether outside the peninsula which includes the parishes 
of Schull and Kiimoe. But this was not so. Belonging to the sub-sept 
there were, within the peninsula of Ivagha the following ploughlands : — 
Bawnashanaclogh, Shanavatowrie (now Shanava), Kilcoosane (now 
Coosane), Collagh (Colla), Scartineculleen, Bawnaknockane, Ballyrisode, 
Rathrovane (Rathruane), with Ardura and Ardglass, now in the parish of 
Kilcoe, but formerly in Schull, as can be proved from old wills in the Record 
Office. It is unnecessary to go through the troublesome task of identifying 
the remaining townlards, but a few words may be said on the question that 
has been raised'^ — whether Glenbarahane, the land on which Castletown- 
send was built, was an outlying portion of this sub-sept's district, not con- 
tinuous with the remainder. It is certainly true that Smith states that "on 
the banks of the river stands Castletownsend, but formerly Sleughteig" (by 
a misprint Sleughleig), and in the Down Survey no less than seven plots of 
land in the map of the parish of Castlehaven are said to be in the 
"Slioghteig" (sic). But in one of the observations accompanying the map 
we find "Slioght Teig Mac Cargh"** (sic), and nowhere is the full name 
written "Sliocht teig O'Mahowne." There was a Sllocht Teig among 
the O'Driscolls. The one point that could be raised in favour of the 
opinion that Glenbarahane belonged to a sub-sept of the O'Mahonys is 
that it was anciently a parish in the Diocese of Cork, whose limits were 
those of the Ui Eachach tribeland, and may have continued in the posses- 
sion of that tribe. See the enumeration of the Cork parishes in the Bull 
of Innocent III., a.d. 1199. 

Donal died in some year about the close of the century, and was suc- 
ceeded by his eldest son, Dermod. This Chieftain was known among his 
contemporaries by the honourable appellation of Dermod Runtach, "the 
reliable." This adjective underwent strange transformations in the 
Lambeth and Herald Office pedigrees. ^^ The century 1400-1500, nearly 
covered by the lifetime of Dermod Runtach and of his sons, was the most 
peaceful and prosperous period in the history of the Western Sept. The 
generosity of Dermod, and the hospitality which he exercised at his resid- 
ence, Ardintennane, are extolled by the Annalists in language similar to 
that in which the Bards celebrated the munificence of his ancestor, Cian, 
in the eleventh century. His second son, Donogh Mor, built, on a 
picturesque spot by Dunmanus Bay, the Castle of Dunmanus, the largest, 
and the best constructed of the Ivagha Castles, with six flanking towers. 
Local tradition preserved his name as "Donogh Ruadh," and the carved 
stone head, which is shown near the top of the vilest wall, is said to repre- 
sent his features. Tradition also says that he commenced to build a castle 
at Knockeens, but did not persevere, finding that the site of the existing 
castle afforded a more secure foundation. Finin, the third son, and the 

43 This question was raised by Mrs. Dorothea Townshend in a paraojraph in "Notes 
nnd Queries" in C H. & A. "Journal," Oct. -Dec, 1906. She dwelt on the fact that "Glen- 
barahane" is said in the Down Survev to be m the Slioght Teig, and (2) stated that "the 
relatives of the proscribed Teig O'Mahon claimed it in a long lawsuit." There was no 
"pro>cribed" Teig 01 that sub-sept at th;it time. The nature of the lawsuit will be 
slated later on. There is no proof that Glenbarahane was claimed in that lawsuit. 

■14 Perhaps Karragh, which was an O'Driscoll praenomen. 

45 The statements of those documents for the period 1014-1400 are quite erroneous. 
For the period after the latter date they are often confirmed by Irish MSS., and, accord- 
ingly, some of the information they contain is made use of in this and the following pages. 



124 THE o'mAHONYS of KINELMEKY and IVAGIIA. 

most celebrated member of the family, obtained Rosbrin Castle, with nine 
and a half ploughlands. It has been already shown that Rosbrin was not 
built by him, but by an ancestor a hundred years before his time. Dun- 
beacon Castle was built for, or by, the fourth son, Donal, who had with it 
four ploughlands. His issue soon became extinct and a subsequent 
O'Mahon, using" the inherent right of a Chief, bestowed it on his own son 
Finin of Cruachan (Crookhaven). The entry in the Annals of the Four 
Masters about Dermod Runtach is as follows: — "a.d. 1427, Dermod 
O'Mahon, Lord of Fonn lartharach (Western Land), a truly hospitable 
man who never refused to give anything to anyone, died after the victory 
of penance" — the latter phrase bemg the usual one to denote a religious 
death. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Connor (Concobar). This 
Chieftain received a sobriquet — almost inevitable in those times — the 
appellation Cabaicc^® "of the exaction," perhaps from a severe tax imposed 
for castle-building. The name has been absurdly translated "the hos- 
tage." In the Lambeth document he is called Connor Kittoch, "the left- 
handed." He married the daughter of O'Dowda of Connacht (a powerful 
Chief, in whose territory there were twenty-four castles), and he had four 
sons. For the second of these, Finin Caol (the slender), he is said to have 
built Leamcon, called also Black Castle. It is now erroneously called 
"Castle Point" by the people of that locality, but educated persons among 
them are aware of the real name. The Down Survey notes: — "Near 
Leamcon Castle is a fair stone house with an orchard." The posterity of 
Finin Caol does -not seem to have died out, as there is in the Co. Cork 
still a family known as "Mahony Caol." 

The following entry regarding Concobar (Cabach) is found in the 
Annals of Loch Ce (K6) : — "O'Mahon of the Western Land, i.e., Conco- 
bar, son of Dermod, son of Donal, son of Finin, son of Dermod M6r, died, 
after penance, in his own Castle of Ard an Tennail, a.d. 1473." 

Donogh Mor of Dunmanus, who had been Tanist since his brother's 
succession in 1427, now obtained the Chieftaincy in conformity with the 
established law, and his brother, Finin of Rosbrin Castle, became Tanist. 
In the preface of Finin 's Translation of Mandeville (of which more later 
on) is a list of contemporary Chiefs, among whom we read of "Donogh, 
son of Dermod, son of Donal, son of Finin O'Mahon, and Donal and his 
brethren, over the Ui Eachach" — the ancient tribe-name of the Sept. 
Donal, who (with "his brethren") is mentioned after Donogh Mor, was the 
O'Mahon of Carbery (Kinelmeky), the head of the other branch of the 
Clan. Donogh and Donal are mentioned also as two contemporary heads 
of their septs in the Book of Munster, p. 636. Donogh Mor died about 
five years afterwards, as will be shown presently. 

On the death of Donogh M6r, his brother Finin, of Rosbrin Castle, suc- 
ceeded to the Chieftaincy. The tenth Lord of Ivagha had spent his years at 
Rosbrin in pursuits very different from those which usually engrossed the 
minds of Irish Chieftains and Anglo-Irish Lords. He devoted himself to the 
study of books, and acquired the reputation of being the most learned man 
of his time in Ireland, A knowledge of Latin he had an opportunity of 
acquiring in his youth at the "Schola S. Mariae," situate at about the 
distance of one mile from his birthplace, Ardintennane Castle, on the 

^^ Cabac (genitive Cabaicc) meant also "a tallcer," or "of the cape" (caba). 



THE O MAHON\S OF KTNELMEKV AND IVAGHA. I 25 

opposite side of Schull Harbour. Most Irish Chieftains of that period 
possessed an acquaintance with Latin/'' sufBcient for conversing with 
foreigners, but falling far short of the extensive knowledge of the language 
ascribed to Finin by his contemporaries. The English language, not taught 
in any Irish school, he acquired in maturer years, induced solely by a 
scholar's love of learning and for the sake of the literature. That language 
u ould not at that time be valued by him as a means of communicating with 
the Dublin officials of the English Kings, whose power was at a low ebb 
in Ireland in the fifteenth century, and was not felt at all in remote Ivagha. 
The following are the testimonies regarding Finin's attainments in the 
contemporary records : — The Annals of Loch Ce, the Book of the 
O'Duigenans of Kilronan, Co. Roscommon : — O IDAcsATtinA An pum lAf- 
tAifij, i.e., "pingih, peiCeArii coitceAnn "OAonnACcA Aguf oinij lAfCAif 
TTliirhAn Aguf An pe^t^ i:<.\ cfeiibige AlA^v^^^ Aj;tif a mbeuftA a corhAimfiiA 
p|Mf "00 X)Ul -065 An btiA-OuAn a.d. 1496 — which the Editor, Mr. Hennessy, 
translates as follows: — "O'Mahouna of the Western Land, Finin, general 
supporter of the hospitality and humanity of West Munster, and the most 
learned man of his time in Latin and English, died in 1496." 

The "Annals of Ulster," under the year 1496 : — "-pingin O IT) AtjArhnA 
"oo 65 in l)tiA"6Ain fi euef *oa 11oT)tAi5, no fetcrhuin f\e tlo-otAig, I'oon, 
Vef\ ciii5feA6 ct\ei"oe(i, eAlATtnAt Aj;uf eotAt 1 fgeutAib in •ooniAin toit^ 
Aguf Atiuf" — which Dr. MacCarthy, the Editor, translates: — "Finin 
O'Mahouna died this year between the two Nativities, or a week before 
Christmas, an intelligent, polished, erudite man, and learned in the history 
of the world in the East and hither" — an idiomatic phrase for "from end 
to end." 

Both records were written by contemporaries. The Ulster Annalist died 
two years after he penned the obit, just quoted. A MS. of the "Annals of 
Loch C^," including- the entries for the fifteenth century, must have been 
in existence *^ in the earlier portion of the next century. The Four Masters, 
under the year 1496, copy the words of the Loch Ce entry almost exactly, 
making but a slight modification. Of the rare learning which our Annals 
attribute to this Chieftain no evidence in the shape of literary remains was 
known to exist until after the middle of the nineteenth century. In the 
autumn of 1869 Dr. James Henthorn Todd, while spending a vacation in 
Brittany, visited its ancient capital, the city of Rennes, and, when inspecting 



47 There are extant some treaties between the English Lord Deputies and the 
O'Neills written in Latin. In the Parliament of 1541 the Earl of Ormond translated the 
Lord Chancellor's speech into Irish for the Irish Chiefs who attended. The "Indenture" 
prepared in 1542 to be signed by the Irish Chiefs (and actually signed by a few of them), 
pledging their allegiance to Henry VIII., was dra\vn up in Latin that it might be under- 
stood by them. McWilliam Eighter, the great Mavo Chief (Hibernis Hibernior) conducted 
his negotiation with Sidney in Latin. Dermod O'Driscoll conversed in Latin with the 
Spaniards at Castlehaven in 1601, according to O'Sullivan Beare. Even at the Confedera- 
tion of Kilkenny, Bishop Heber McMahon had to address the assembly in Latin, not 
knowing (as he admitted) "either the French or Sassenagh languages." A Royal Pro- 
clamation in 1605 against the Irish Jesuits was published in Dublin and other parts of 
Ireland in Latin. "That it may be generally understood, I am putting it into Latin" 
(Chichester to Cranbourne). 

48 A copy belonging to Brian Mac Dermot, Chief of Moylurg, was transcribed in 
1588, and the copyist added entries about the events of Brian's lifetime; the MS. 
transcribeil must have belonged to the earlier part of tlint century, if not to the end of 
the 15th. 



126 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

the public library, was shown an old Irish MS. He copied some pages, 
which, on his return, he showed to Prof. Hennessy (Editor of the "Annals of 
Loch Ce), who discovered the nature and authorship of the MS. In the fol- 
lowing- year 1870', Dr. Todd read before the R. I. Academy a paper entitled, 
"Some account of an Irish MS. deposited by President De Robien in the 
Public Library, Rennes. " Having narrated the circumstances of his dis- 
covery, and having alluded to the numerous translations of "Sir John 
Mandeville's Travels," and the widespread popularity of that book in the 
14th and 15th centuries, he writesj— "It has not hitherto been known that 
there was an Irish version of this remarkable book made at the close of 
the 15th century by an eminent Irish Chieftain, Finghin O'Mahony." "^^ 
Induced by Dr. Todd's paper, the Hon. John Abercrombie visited the Rennes 
Library, transcribed the MS., and wrote an elaborate review of it in the 
Revue Celtique in 1886. He is an acute critic, and shows a fair know- 
ledge of Irish Gaelic. Finally, Whitley Stokes copied the Rennes MS., and 
published it in the Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie (Halle, 1899). He 
gave a literal English translation, divided the text into paragraphs, ex- 
tended the contractions, and gave a list of the rarer words. Both critics 
make it clear that the translator worked from the English version, not 
from the French original. Mr. Abercrombie, while inferring from the 
translation that "Finghin knew English well," thinks it probable that he 
was not acquainted with French ; but his argument for this latter opinion, 
which it would take too long to examine here, is by no means conclusive. 
When Dr. Todd wrote, Sir John Maundeville was regarded as a real per- 
sonage, and figured in every history of English literature as "the Father 
of English Prose." Since then the lynx-eyed criticism of the nineteenth 
century has proved that the name of the English knight (if, indeed, he ever 
existed) was assumed by an ingenious Frenchman, who is shown to have 
freely compiled, from a considerable number of mediaeval books of travel, 
the descriptions of the various countries through which "Maimdeville" is 
said to iiave made his circuitous pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Neverthe- 
less, the author produced a readable and entertaining book, which had an 
unexampled circulation through Europe in Latin and modern versions. 
The "speciosa m.iracula" of the book, the Fountain of youth, the glories 
of Prester John, the Valley Perilous, &c. , made a special impression on 
Finin, nurtured as he was in his youth on the tales of Tir na n6g and the 
Imrama or wonder-voyages of his native literature, and determined him 
to select it for translation. From a philological point of view the version 
is important as affording a specimen of "Middle Irish" (a.d. iooo-i 500) just 
before it passed into "Modern Irish." There is scarcely any other ex- 
ample of the ordinary colloquial language of the time, for the Chroniclers 
and Annalists could not free their style from the archaisms that had become 
traditional among the Ollamhs. As the version was made when the 
writer's old age had already commenced, it cannot be supposed to have 
been his first, and may have been the least important of his works. 

In obedience to a time-honoured custom, he commenced his MS. with a 
statement of the "place, time, author, and cause of writing," or purpose 
of the work. The "place" was "Ross Broin" in "Ibh-Eachach 

49 Dr. Todd attempted to give the g;enealoa;v of the Chieftain from the time of 
Mahon, but was misled by the incorrect "Herald Office" pedigree of A.D. 1600, 



THE o'mAIIONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I 27 

Muinhan,'"^" or Ivagha. The "time," as indicated by numeral letters, the 
final one being somewhat obscure, was not 1472 (Dr. Todd), but 1475 
(Abercrombie and Stokes) ; the latter writers missed an argument against 
Dr. Todd, which they might have derived from the translator's statement 
that, when he wrote, iho Chieftain of Ivagha was his brother, Donogh Mor, 
who did not succeed Connor until 1473 ("Annals of Loch C6," supra). 
Having given the name of the original author, the translator then sets down 
his own name as "Finin, son of Dermod, son of Donal, son of Finin, son 
of Dermod Mor O'Mahouna." The "cause of writing" was to supply an 
Itincrarium to Palestine — the purpose also stated in "Maundeville." So 
far the proemium was of the usual kind. Having by him a list which he 
had prepared of the contemporary Chiefs, he rightly considered that the 
most secure means of handing it down to posterity was to insert it, after 
the formal preface, in a substantive work such as the version of Maunde- 
ville. The thoroughly Celtic patriotism of the then Tanist of Ivagha is 
shown by his studiously ignoring the existence of the Anglo-Irish occupants 
of the soil of Ireland; even over "the Pale" in the third century after the 
invasion of Henry II. he recognises only "Mac Murchada, King of Lein- 
ster. " The two Septs of his OAvn tribe he mentions under their ancient 
appellation, "Ui Eachach Mumhan," and, curious to say, in giving the 
names of the two Chiefs, he associates with them "their brothers" ("Con 
a mbrathairibh"), probably because he was himself a Tanist. As his list 
of contemporary Chiefs is an interesting historical document, and serves 
to correct some dates given in the Annals, and has not been hitherto pub- 
lished in Ireland, it has been thought well to give it in full in a footnote. ^^ 
The Rennes MS., the more perfect and the earlier of the two codices, 

50 In the "Annals of Loch Ce," under the year 1366, Cormac Donn Mac Carthy is 
called "Lord of Ui Cairbre in Ibh-Eachach Mumhan" (Ivagha). In the time of the 
undivided Sept of the O'Mahonys, before 1260, their old tribe name, as a geographical 
term, included Carberv strictly so called, and this ancient usage was kept up by Irish 
writers for a considerable time. It was an English, not an Irish, usage that afterwards 
included Ivagha (the Western Land) in "Carbery." The Four Masters, who made fre- 
quent use of the "Loch Ce Annals," erroneously transcribed the above entry thus: — 
". . . Lord of Ui Cairbre and Ui Eachach Mumhan." The error is adopted by Mr. 
McC. Glas ("The McCarthys of Cleancliroim,' p. t;5). 

51 The author in his enumeration follows to a certain extent a geographical order, 
beginning with the two tribes west of Ivagha, and proceeding eastwards, and then north- 
wards : — 

"These are the Lords that were over the Gaels when Finin put this into Gaelic, viz. : — 

Tndhg, son of Donal Og, son of Tadhg na Mainistrech, son of Donal Og, was 
Mac Carthaig Mor; 

Dermot, son of Tadhg, son of Amhiaibh, was O'Sulabain Berre ; 

Donchadh (Mor), son of Dermot, son of Donal, son of Finin, and Donal (of 
Kinelmeky), and their brothers were over the Ui Eachach (O'Mahonvs). 

Cormac, son of Donchad, son of Donal Reagh, over Ui Cairbre (Carbery). 

Dermot, son of Donal Reagh, was Mac Carthy Cairbrech (a disputed succession). 

Donal, son of Donal, son of Donal Cluaiseach, Mac Carthy was over the Sept of 
Dermod Reamhar (The Pat). 

Finin, son of Mac Con, son of Mac Con, son of Finin, was O'Driscoll Mor; 

Cormac, son of Tadhg, son of Cormac, was over Muskerrv ; 

Donchadh Og, son of Donchadh, over Ella (Duhallow) ; 

Concobar, son of Turlough, son of Brian, son of Mahon, was O'Brien; 

Henry, son of Eoghan, son of Niall Og, was O'Neill; 

Conn, son of Aedh Buidhe, son of Brian Ballagh, had power over Trian Conghail 
(i.e., was de facto Chief), and his uncle was O'Neill Buidhe; 

Aedh Ruadh, son of Niall Garbh, son of Turlough of the Wine, was O'Donnell, and 
he had power over Lower Connacht ; 

Phelim, son of Turlough, son of Aedh, son of Turlough, was O'Connor ; 



128 THE OMAHONYS OF KINF.LMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

is a transcript made at Kilcrea Priory, according to a marginal note in page 
69 (in the same handwriting), which seems to the present writer to have 
been written not by a monk,^^ but by some wandering scholar who was 
allowed to transcribe the copy in the Kilcrea library. The Egerton MS. 
(British Museum) made by Brian O'Rourke, Tanist of Breffny ("Annals 
F. M., 1484), gives a list of Chiefs reduced to seven, and among them sets 
down Finin's name as Chieftain of Ivagha, and must therefore have been 
written after the death of Donogh M6r. If Mr. Abercrombie's opinion be 
correct, that the Kilcrea manuscript was made about 1475, and the Egerton 
MS. "a little later," we may, perhaps, conclude that in 1478 Donogh died 
and Finin succeeded to the chieftaincy. 

It may well be supposed that the "general supporter of humanity and 
hospitality in West Munster" (as the Loch Ce Annalist calls Finin) would 
extend his generosity by preference to those of his countrymen who cul- 
tivat€.d such learning as was attainable in those times. A specially welcome 
guest in his Castles was Donal O'Fihelly,^^ a man of considerable reputa- 
tion for learning and the author of Ann'als of Ireland in the Irish language, 
which he dedicated to his patron, the Chieftain of Ivagha. Donal was an 
Oxford scholar, and Antony k Wood in his Athenae Oxonienses, in making 
mention of his name, says that he was much regarded by his countrymen 
for his knowledge and industry in matters of history and antiquity, and 
adds that he was living in 1505. The love of learning which stimulated 
Donal O'Fihelly and many of his countrymen in the 15th century to study 
at Oxford, giving their name to "Yrischemen's Street" in that city, was 
truly disinterested, for they could not hope to obtain thereby any material 
advantages on their return which would compensate them for their years 
of hard study and privation. O'Fihelly 's historical work was not heard of 
since it was seen in 1626 by Sir James Ware^^ "in the possession of 

Tadhg Caoch, son of William, was O'Kelly ; and William, son of Aedh, son of Brian, 
opposing him on the other side of the River Suck ; 

Owen, son of Murchad O'Madagain, over the Sil-Anmchada ; 

Murchad, son of Muirchertach, son of Donchadh Caemhanach (Kavanagh), was King 
over Leinster ; 

Caithair, son of Conn, son of Calbhach, over O'Connor Failge ; 

Tadhg, son of Laigen, son of Rury, was O'Dunn ; 

Sean, son of Maolroony, son of Tadhg, was King over Elib (Ely O'Carroll) ; 

Gilla na Naomh, son of Tadhg, son of Gilla na Naomh, was over the Hui Mechair 
(O'Maher) ; 

And many others who, for the sake of brevity, are not reckoned." 

The list contains only about a third of the Celtic potentates then ruling — probably 
because he had not been able to ascertain the indispensable series of four or five ancestors 
which custom required to be attached to each Chieftain's name. The State Paper of 
A.D. it;i5, already quoted, enumerated sixty-four, and, as has been shown (supra), even 
that list was not a complete one. 

52 The marginal note is an absurd scribble. The words, "Maunday Thursday to-day, 
and I under the protection of the man who, &c., and at Kilcrea," imply a casual visitor, 
not a permanent resident. Both Editors hold that there are some interpolations in the 
text made by this scribe ; one interpolation has "Finin translated this from Hebrew, 
Greek, Latin and English." 

53 See O'Donovan's Edition of "Genealogy of Corcalaidhe," pp. 53-54, about the 
O'Fihelly territory. The celebrated Maurice Ue Portu O'Fihelly, Archbishop of Tuam, 
1506,^ and called in the Continental schools where he taught "Flos Mundi," was a member 
of this family, and probably a relative of Donal's. 

54 See Mrs. Green's "The Making and Unmaking of Ireland," p. 291, &c. See 
Ware's "Irish Writers," p. qo, and Wood's "Athenae Oxonien«e." Smith copied Ware's 
notice about O'Fihelly and his patron in the last chapter of his "History of Cork." 




RossBRiN Castle. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 1 29 

Florence McCarthy in London" — doubtless the unfortunate Florence 
Mac Carthy M6r, a prisoner in the Tower of London. If it could be dis- 
covered, it would fill up many a lacuna in the history of the South Munster 
Tribes who have got but scant justice from the Annalists of the North. 

It is probable that it was in the lifetime of Finin that a bard attached to 
Rosbrin Castle composed the "Saltair (Psalter) of Rosbrin." It was extant 
when Smith wrote his History of Cork, and the description he got of it from 
some Irish scholar was that "it contains little else than a genealogical 
account of the (Western) family of the O'Mahonys." Since Smith's time 
no copy of this MS. has been seen. "Unkind fate," says Windele,^* "has 
bereft the Senachie of this record. Some may deem this no loss to litera- 
ture, _but for my part — and there are those who may too agree with me — I 
am not disposed to wish the loss of any work which may afford the smallest 
gleam of light on the history, the manners, opinions, or state of mental or 
political improvement of an ancient people. A Mr. Otway, the flippant 
writer of Sketches in Ireland, glorying in the loss of this Psalter, asks with 
exultation, "where is now the rhyming record of all the pious practices and 
crimson achievements of those sea lords?" Would that I could answer! 
I would not give one of its quatrains for all the disingenuousness and fana- 
tical slaver of his discoloured and muddy sketches. " (From the article, "Dr. 
Mac Slatt in the West," marked "J. Windele" in his own copy.) 

Though this Chieftain must have gone to reside at Ardintennane Castle, 
for two centuries the chief residence of the Head of the Sept, he continued 
to be called, In the next generation and since, "Finin of Rosbrin" from the 
name of the place where he spent the greater part of his life.^^ What 
remains to be recorded of him is soon told. He married the daughter of 
O'Donoghue Mor of Loch Lene (Killarney), and had a son Donal, and a 
daughter who was married to O'Driscoll. He governed his Clan for about 
eighteen years, and died at an advanced age In the year already mentioned, 
1496. 

From the days of the first distinctive ancestor, Aedh Urgarbh (fl. 550) 
the Clan whose history Is here being written had never been convulsed by 
any internal dissension. There was hitherto no instance of a disputed suc- 
cession. It was in strict accordance with the Law of Tanlstry that three 
sons of Dermod Runtach, viz., Concobar or Connor, Donogh Mor, and 
Finin succeeded in their turn to the Chieftainship, "The Law of Tanlstry 
is," said Carew (Lambeth Pedigrees) "that the eldest man of the blood 
succeed to the Lordship of the territory." By virtue of the same law,^' 
DonaJ, the fourth and youngest of the brothers, and the survivor of them, 
expected the Chieftaincy. But the actual rule of succession was by no 

55 Bolster's Magazine, Dec, 1829, p. 230. 

56 Rossbrin, on one side, rises sheer from the sea. On the land side it appears from 
some existing substructions to have had flanking towers, as other castles of Ivagha had. 
A farm house in the vicinity was probably built out of the ruined outworks. 

57 It has been otherwise expressed as follows : — "The law of Tanistry means lateral 
succession from brother to brother, or (if there were no brothers of the late chief) from 
cousin to cousin, "the eldest in years of equal blood." The "eldest and the best man 
of his name" was the description of the Chief, "eldest and best" being synonymous, as 
also were the adjectives "youngest and meanest," the latter term being used only in a 
genealogical sense, as in the case of one of the Kinelmeky Chiefs. Five brothers were in 
succession Chiefs of the Clan of McCarthy Reagh in the i6th century, and on the death 
of the last of them, the son of an elder brother got his turn. 



130 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

means of the fixed and unalterable character that the above absolute state- 
ment would imply. The right of the Clan to make a selection from the 
immediate relatives of the deceased Chief, though it was generally latent, 
and might be supposed to be in abeyance, was often successfully asserted. 
When the son of a popular chief was of full age and gave evidence of mili- 
tary qualities, the Clan usually acquiesced in his appointment with such 
unanimity that the uncles did not put forward their pretensions. The 
raison d'etre of the Tanist usage did not exist in such instances. This will 
explain how from the first quarter of the tenth century to the end of the 
first quarter of the twelfth, or to be more exact, to the year 1135, the suc- 
cession of Chiefs of the O'Mahony Clan was identical with the succession 
in the genealogical list of the ruling family. The Chieftainship passed from 
father to eldest son, as if the system of Primogeniture was recognised. But 
at the very first opportunity that presented itself — in the year just men- 
tioned — the ordinary Tanist Law was not interfered with, and the uncle 
succeeded in preference to the nephew, who was under age. 

To return to the affairs of Ivagha in 1496, on the death of the last 
Chieftain, the Clan was involved in the turmoil of a disputed succession. 
Conor (Concobar) called Conor Fionn (genitive, Finn), or "the fair-haired," 
the son of Conor (Concobar Cabaicc), who died (as we have seen) in 1473, 
opposed the claim of his uncle, Donal of Dunbeacon Castle. His own claim 
was opposed by junior cousins, the sons of Donogh M6r and of Finin, 
who saw a chance for themselves, if the established usage were to be set 
aside. Eventually, Conor Fionn triumphed over all his opponents, not 
perhaps by force of arms, for that circumstance is not mentioned by the 
Annalists, who would not be likely to omit mentioning a combat. Pro- 
bably he got so large a following among the Clan that all opposition had 
soon to be abandoned. He was the first "O'Mahon Fionn," an appellation 
given to all his successors in the MSS. of the Irish Genealogists and in the 
State Papers, down to the extinction of the Sept. To distinguish him from 
the namesakes who succeeded him, the genealogists of his own tribe gave 
him the sobriquet of Conor Fionn r\A neAt "of the steeds." Besides his 
eldest son, who succeeded him, he had a son Finin of Cruachdn (Crook- 
haven), where he had a castle, which after the Confiscation (1657) the 
English authorities used as a prison. It is alluded to in Bishop Dive 
Downes' visitation in 1599: — "There (in Crookhaven) are also the walls of 
an old castle, which they say was formerly a prison ; there are the ruins of a 
chapel at the west end of the town." To this Finin his father gave the 
Castle of Dunbeacon, with the four ploughlands attached to it, after the 
death, without issue, of his uncle and unsuccessful competitor, Donal. 
Between the Ivagha Chiefs and the Heads of the other Western Septs 
friendly relations had existed without interruption during the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries, and were occasionally strengthened by marriage alli- 
ances. Conor Fionn had a daughter, Joanna, who was married to O'Dris- 
coll (Conogher), and became the mother of Sir Finin; after O'Driscoll's 
death she married O'Mahony of Carbery, Chief of Kinelmeky. She is re- 
ferred to in an Irish elegy on Sir Finin (in O 'Donovan's Genealogy of 
Corcalaide) ^s where he is apostrophised as "ITIac f^An fli6c nA 5-cuf-At)," 

58 The elegy was by an O'Daly of Carbery, one of the family that had been here- 
ditary bards of the Ivagha Chiefs — which will account for this eulogistic passage. 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA, 13I 

"son of Joanna of the race of heroes." Adjoining Ivagha on the east was 
the territory of the Clandermod, a branch of the Mac Carthy Reaghs. 
According to the Clandermod pedigree in Carew's Lambeth Collection, 
Uonal Mac Carthy (son of the Clandermod Chief, Donal, and his wife, a 
daughter of Barry Roe) "was married to a daughter of O'Mahonie," and 
received from his father "the castell of Kilcoe and other lands"; and 
"Honor, daughter of O'Mahonie," was married to the fourth son, Cormac, 
who obtained "for his portion C'oghan Castle and three carucates of its 
demesne land." The Christian name of the "O'Mahonie" is not given, 
but from chronological reasons it is clear that he was the first Conor Fionn. 
Another daughter was married (Lambeth pedigree of the O'M.) to 
Maolmuire Mac Swiney, whose son Turlough, captain of galloglasses in 
the pay of Mac Carthy Reagh, defeated the Geraldine invaders of Carbery 
at Innishannon, a.d. 1560 (Annals Four M.) 

Conor Fionn had three brothers — Finm Caol (a quo the families 
known as Mahony Caol), occupied Leamcon Castle, and another brother, 
David, held four plough-lands in the neighbourhood of the same Castle, 
and Dermod had Dunlogh Castle, on "Three Castle Head," with eight 
ploughlands. 

Conor Fionn was the ruler of the Clan for seventeen years. The follow- 
ing is the notice of him in the Annals of the Four Masters, under the year 
A.D. 1513 : — "O'Mahony, Conor Fionn, son of Conor, son of Dermod 
Runtach, died this year. This Conor made his way to the Chieftainship 
of his native territory, in spite of the Sinsear and the Soisear. " On the 
entry the Editor, Dr. O'Donovan, has a footnote: — "In despite of the 
Sinsear and Soisear, i.e., in despite of his senior and junior rivals; c-A|v 
tAttixMt) in this sentence means literally 'beyond their hands,' i.e., beyond 
their exertions ; the hands of both senior and junior rivals being raised to 
prevent him from making his way to the ceAn-oux), headship or chieftainship 
of his native territory of Ivahagh. "^^ 

The late Chieftain was not immediately succeeded by his eldest son. 
The Chieftainship passed to Conor Fionn 's next brother, Finin Caol of 
Leamcon Castle, by the Tanist law of lateral succession. In the Report 
drawn up in 1515, which sets forth, for the information of Henry VIII., that 
by far the greater part of Ireland was stDl in the hands of the "Irish 
enemy," and gives a list of sixty-four Heads of Septs, Finin Caol O'M. was 
the personage referred to as "O'Mahon of Fonnsheragh (Fonn lartharach), 
Chyef Captayne of his nation." He and his predecessors had kept aloof 
altogether from the representatives of English power in the country, and 
had governed their Tribeland according to immemorial usages, just as if 
Henry II. had never landed in Ireland. It is not known how long Finin 
Caol held his office, but on his death, though he had a son (Donal a quo 
O'Mahony Caol), by the operation of the same law that secured the Head- 
ship for himself, he was succeeded by another brother. This was Dermod 
of Dunlogh Castle on Three Castle Head — a lonely residence which he was 
probably not reluctant to exchange for Ardintennane. On the death of 
Dermod, the Chieftainship at length reverted to his nephew, the son of 

59 The above passage, correctly, of course, rendered by Dr. O'Donovan, has been 
ridiculously translated since his time in two "County Histories" as follows : — "This 
Conor O'M. excelled in the management of his estate all who went before him and all 
who came after him" ! (See Miss Cusack's "History of Cork" and "History of Kerry".) 



132 THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Conor Fionn. Conor Fiona, the second O'Mahouna Fionn, was distin- 
guished by the tribal genealogists from his namesakes (grandfather and 
father and son) by the appellations of Conor Fionn Og and Conor Fion 
viA cc|\of-"" His accession may be considered to have taken place before 
1535, as his predecessor, the son of one who died in 1473 {Annals F. M.) 
and succeeded in 1427, would probably be much over ninety years of ag' 
in 1535. It is morally certain that he must have been the Chief in 1540. 
In 1537 Antony St. Leger came over from England as Lord Deputy, with 
instructions to obtain from the Irish Chiefs and Anglo-Norman Lords a 
declaration of allegiance to Henry VIIL, and (what his Majesty was equally 
solicitous about) a recognition of his claim to be the Head of the Church 
in his dominion. When St. Leger came to Cork for this purpose in 1642, 
six Heads of Septs responded to his invitation and made the required 
declarations. These were McCarthy Mor, McCarthy Reagh, McCarthy of 
Muskerry, McDonogh of Duhallow, O'SuUivan Beare (Dermot), and 
O'Callaghan. They certainly pledged their allegiance to the King of 
England, but as to his novel claim to be "Head of the Church" possibly 
they did not realise its full meaning, and thought he was asserting some 
right to ecclesiastical patronage; at all events, they and their sons after 
them continued to live as members of the Catholic Church. Conor Fionn 
Og of Ivagha, his kinsman O'Mahony of Kinelmeky, and O'DriscoIl, 
O'Donovan, O'Keeffe, the two O'Donoghues, and Mac Auliffe paid no 
heed to the Lord Deputy's hurhiliating demands. 

Conor Fionn Og married Ellen, the daughter of "O'Mahony of Car- 
bery,"^^ Chief of Kinelmeky, and had three sons, Conor, Donal and Der- 
mod, the latter of whom died sine prole. In the interval between the year 
last mentioned (1542) and the year 1562 there is nothing to record about the 
affairs of Ivagha, But in the latter year an incident occurred which occa- 
sioned the downfall of one of the principal families of the Clan, and even- 
tually brought the Chieftain into collision with the English Government. 
From the end of the last century the owner of Rosbrin Castle had been re- 
garded as next in status to his cousin, the Chieftain who resided in the neigh- 
bouring Castle of Ardintennane. His wealth equalled or nearly equalled that 
of the Chief, and he could bring to the muster of the tribal forces a larger 
contingent of horsemen, though fewer kerne. In fact, he was able to 
raise a much larger number of horsemen than the heads of the other 
western septs, O'DriscoIl, O'Donovan, and O'SuUivan Beare ^^ taken 
together. While such resources were at the disposal of the descendants of 

6 He is called Connor Fionn "na grestie" in the Harleian MS. pedigree, British 
Museum; probably this is a distortion of "na ccros." In the same MS. Finin Caol ap- 
pears as "Finin Keard," but in the accompanying notes the name is spelled "Keale." 
Dermod is called in same MS- "Drashah." In this MS. square marks are placed near 
the names of Finin and Dermod and Connor Fionn — which, in the "accompanying notes," 
are explained to mean that the persons so marked "have been lords of the country of 
Ivagha." 

61 Whoever made the Index of O'DonoA-nn's "Annals of the Four Masters" fell into 
the error of giving the appellation "of Carberv" to the eastern and western chiefs of the 
O'M. indiscriminately. Irish usage confined the name "Cairbreach" to the Chief of 
Kinelmeky. 

62 Carew's estimate, "ten horsemen," is confirmed bv Don Philip O'Sullivan's 
admission — "pauci equites." (Hist. "Cath. Hiberniae.") As stated in a previous page, 
the Rosbrin Chief had forty-six. 



THE o'mAHONYS of KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 1 33 

"Finin of Rosbrin," it is some evidence of their strong sense of tribal 
discipline that none of them attem.pted by armed force to seize on the 
Chieftaincy when that position became vacant. In 1562 the proprietor of 
Rosbrin was Donal, son of Conor, son of Donal, the son of Finin "The 
Scholar." About Donal no Irish account has come down to us, and the 
only source of informafion is an Inquisition held in Cork in 1576, the 
fourteenth year after his death. In this Inquisition it is stated that "Donal 
Mac Conogher O'Mahonye, of Rossbryn, gentleman," was seized on Sept. 
20th, 1562, while within the Liberties of Cork, tried on a charge of what is 
vaguely called "felony," condemned, and put to death. In other documents 
the specific charge made against him is mentioned as "piracy." As the 
Inquisition further states that he was attainted and his Castle and demesne 
lands absolutely forfeited, and as high treason alone involved absolute for- 
feiture of real estate, it is clear Donal must have attacked at sea some 
Government vessel — an act that would be construed, in legal phraseology, 
as "levying war on the King." From the point of view of the western 
septs, this act would not be regarded as piracy in the ordinary sense of the 
term. They would not place it in the same category as an attack made on 
a vessel coming from the Continent to trade or fish on the Irish coast. 
They were "the Irish enemy," officially described as such in the State 
papers of that century. They knew that from 1339, when "an admiral 
was sent to arrest traders with the Irish," an attempt was made from time 
to time to deprive them of their chief means of living by preventing Spanish 
and French vessels from coming to their harbours. "^^ An Act of Edward 
IV. (1465) deplored the increasing commerce of the Irish, and ordered that 
no foreign vessels should fish in Irish waters. This policy was continued 
by Elizabeth, who sent orders that "the commerce be got into our own 
people's hands," i.e., the hands of English colonists in the towns of Ireland. 
But the Government was too weak to carry out this policy effectively, and 
vessels from the Continent, protected by the western Chiefs, as we have 
shown in a former page, came in hundreds to the Western Coast, while (as 
the Mayor of Waterford^* wrote in 1542) they carefully avoided the south- 
east coast,, haunted by the Thomsons, Eagles, Colles, Whiteheads, and 
other English pirates. It may be, therefore, that the vessel that Donal 
pursued to Cork Harbour and failed to take was one engaged in keeping 
off foreign traders that might have come into his own harbour of Rosbrin. 

A trial on a charge of piracy, held in the piratical city of Cork, was a 
curious spectacle : 

Ouis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes. 
Mr. Gibson, vol. i. p. 170 and seq., having given instances of "port 
piracy," and related how Malvoisey wine, part of the plunder of a Venetian 
vessel ^^ driven in by stress of weather, was sent as a present to the King 

63 See this proved by a long array of authorities in Mrs. Green's recent boot, "The 
Making and Unmaking of Ireland." 

6i "No foreign ships come to our ports for fear of pirates." (Letter of Mayor of 
Waterford in Cal. of State Papers.) 

6 5 The Venetian Republic was then at peace with England. Public opinion in Eng- 
land as to piracy was strikingly shown in 1573, when Drake, after preying on the Commerce 
of Spain, then at peace with England, arrived in Plymouth, and a whole congregation 
left the preacher to address empty benches and rushed to see "the evidence of God's 
blessing on the Queen and country." 




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DuNBEACON Castle. 




DuNLOGH Castle. 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I 35 

(Edward), sarcastically observes: "Foreign traders would scarcely style 
Cork Harbour 'Static bene fida carinis.' " 

Having- put Donal to death, the Cork civic authorities fitted up, at the 
enormous expense of ;£^40o (;^'4,ooo of our money), an expedition to seize 
Rosbrin Castle, which they claim to have done "with the loss of killed and 
wounded citizens." They then made it over on "O'Mahono Fynn (Fionn) 
and "Cornelius O'Mahon" (his son and successor), "who kept the Castle 
and land for eight years and enjoyed all the profits." This, of course, 
means that they were compelled to surrender the Castle to the Chief of 
Ivagha, and to retire without recouping themselves for their great expendi- 
ture. It may be presumed that Rosbrin and its lands were held by the 
guardian of his tribe on behalf of the heir. In 1571 (according to the 
authority above quoted), Sir John Perrott, the newly-appointed Lord 
President of Munster, sending an adequate force to Rosbrin, wrested from 
the Chieftain of Ivagha that Castle and its lands, the custody of which 
"for the Queen's use" was then entrusted to Mac Sweeny gallowglasses, 
who were in the pay of the Government. Next year we find this garrison 
charged with rebellious practices and punished with a fine (probably never 
enforced) of "sixty good fat cows." (Fiants of Elizabeth, 1572.) 

From a pardon, in the Fiants of 1576, to the Mac Sweeny gallowglasses 
and to "Teig Mac Conor O'Mahony, gentleman," for "conspiracy, con- 
federation, and rebellion," it is plain that the garrison made common cause 
with the dispossessed family. The question "Sed quis custodiet ipsos 
custodes" had now to be faced. A garrison composed of English soldiers 
could not be provided. So, in a "Fiant" of 1578, "by the advice of our 
right trusty counsellor, Sir H. Sidney," Conogher O'M. , brother of the 
attainted Donal (and father of Teig above-mentioned) was put in possession 
of the castle and demesne lands, subject to an almost norfiinal rent and to 
the conditions that he "shall not alienate or impose on his tenants the 
exactions of 'coyne and livery.'" The document enumerates the seven 
and a half (recte, nine) ploughlands, and it is interesting to find among 
them the obsolete place-name "Kileaspuig-mic-oen," which preserved at 
that time the memory of a now forgotten Bishop. The Rosbrin family 
rapidly regained their status, as it must have been in the next year — pre- 
ceding the Desmond War — that the estimate of their forces was made, 
which has been already given from Carew's investigations. 

But to return to the history of the head of the Clan, Conor Fionn, the 
second of that name. From the Cork Inquisition we infer that he was 
alive in 1571, when Sir John Perrott's expedition came to seize Rosbrin. 
This loss, and perhaps some personal afflictions during the course of his 
life, may probably account for his Irish sobriquet, "na ccros" — of the mis- 
fortunes. He must have been, then, advanced in years, and he probably 
died soon after, but we have no exact record of the date of his death. His 
son did not immediately succeed him. The Chieftaincy passed, first, to his 
brother Donal, and then to his brother Dermod. To their names Is 
attached the mark indicating Chieftainship in the Lambeth pedigree (Carew 
MSS.) ; the document requires corroboration, which In this case Is forth- 
coming. In 1587 there was a controversy in the O 'Sullivan Beare Clan *" 
between Donal Cam (afterwards the celebrated Donal of Dunboy) and his 

«« "Calendar of State Papers," 1587. 



136 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

uncle Owen or Sir Owen, the actual Chief, as to whether the Tanist suc- 
cession or that by lineal descent was the rule of the Clan. The latter, in 
support of his contention, asserted that the Tanist Law of succession pre- 
vailed "in all the adjoining Clans," the next of which, on the south, was 
Ivagha. Donal, his nephew, would be glad to be able to point out, in 
reply, a contemporary instance of immediate lineal succession in Ivagha, 
but he was unable to do so. Neither Donal nor Dermod O'Mahon enjoyed 
for more than a year or two the office which came to them so late in life. 
There is reason for believing that Conor Fionn III. succeeded in 1575, and 
that he, and not his aged uncle Dermod, was the "O'Mahon" whom, with a 
few other Chiefs, Sir H. Sidney in December of that year was thinking of 
having "nobilitated," in order to try to win them over to the English 
interest. (See Gibson's Hist, of Cork, vol. i. p. 227.) Conor Fionn mar- 
ried, first, the daughter of McCarthy Reagh, and on her death took as his 
second wife the daughter of the Knight of Kerry (Harleian MS., 1425, 
Brit. Museum). He had several daughters, and three sons all younger 
than the daughters, and minors at the time of his death. 

In 1576 a Fiant grants the pardon of "Owen Mac Carthy Reagh of 
Kilbrittain ; Florence O'Mahoone, called O'Mahoone Carbery of Castle- 
mahon; Conor O'Mahoone of Crookhaven, and Finin O'Hederschoil, called 
O'Hederscheol (O'Driscoll)," for sundry infringements of English Law. 
From the collocation of the third name between those of two Chieftains, 
it is certainly that of Conor Fionn, though "O'Mahon of Ivagha" was 
accidentally omitted after it ; one of the castles in which he used to reside 
was Ballydevlin, near Crookhaven, and he might, therefore, be described 
as from it. The charge of fabricating false money brought against so 
many Chieftains, according to the Fiant, requires some elucidation. 
About 1550 the Lord Deputy was petitioned by the Kinsale Council 
to compel their neighbours, Mac Carthy Reagh, Barryroe, Barry Oge, and 
others "to take the King's coin." But as Mr. Gibson shows, the coin 
sent to Ireland in the reigns of Edward and Elizabeth was a debased 
coinage. Foreign merchants, he says, shunned ports where the coinage 
was light and bad. Under these circumstances the Irish Chiefs were driven 
to manufacture a coinage for themselves, such as the Spanish and French 
traders would not refuse to accept. They probably took for their model 
the Spanish dollar, which was of good silver, and, says Mr. Gibson, "must 
have gone far to make King Philip popular in Ireland." 

Conor Fionn (IIL) was Chieftain of Ivagha in the memorable year 
1579, the year of the Insurrection known as the Desmond Rebellion. The 
Rosbrin family, though recently restored to their possessions after an 
exclusion of seventeen years, courageously resolved to take part in the 
struggle for civil and religious liberty. Donal Mac Conor O'M., who 
had become head of that family, in succession to his father, led his con- 
tingent of "forty-six horsemen and one hundred kerne (vide supra) 
to the rendezvous at Ballyhowra on the 9th of August, ^^ where he met his 
kinsman, the Chieftain of Kinelmeky. There is reason to believe that 
Donal of Rosbrin was accompanied by some other leading men of the 
Clan outside his own territory. One of those was the proprietor of Dun- 

67 Inquisition of 1586, "Conogher O'M. nuper de Kinelmeky . . . intravit in re- 
bellionem apud Ballyhaury, nono die Aug., 1579-" 



THE O MAHONVS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I 37 

beacon Castle, whose participation in the Rising would not be known but 
for an incidental reference in a State Paper of 1588, which will be quoted 
later on. But the Head of the Clan kept aloof from the enterprise. It 
must not be assumed that he did not share the national sentiments of his 
kinsmen of Rosbrin and Kinelmeky. He had a cogent reason for remain- 
ing at home — the protection of his tribeland against the machinations of a 
hostile neighbour on the north-west. This was Owen, or Sir Owen, 
O'Sullivan, the then Chieftain of Beara, who, for his loyalty, obtained 
a title from Queen Elizabeth. Not venturing to invade Ivagha himself 
(see previous account of his forces), he invited the hot-headed youth. Sir 
James of Desmond (youngest brother of the EarlJ to do so. Raiding of 
this kind, which had been long since given up by the Celtic Chieftains of 
the South, had remained the ingrained, hereditary practice of the House 
of Desmond, as we have shown in the account of Kinelmeky. ^^ No Irish 
tribe kept a sufficient standing force in arms, and a long peninsula such as 
Ivagha might be raided in remote parts by marauders, who could retreat 
before the clansmen could be concentrated. O'Sullivan's nephew and 
competitor for the Chieftainship — the subsequently celebrated Donal Cam 
of Dunboy — in his "Answer to the false allegations of Owen O'Sullivan, "^^ 
addressed to the Lord Deputy in 1587, says, "After the proclaiming of 
Desmond and his confederates, Nov. and, 1579, Owen sent word to Sir 
James of Desmond, younger brother of the Earl, and entreated him to 
come to 0*Mahon Fionn's country, adjoining his, and to spoil the said 
country ; and if there was any danger towards him, that he would hasten 
to rescue him, which James did, coming to and fro through Owen's dwell- 
ing. Owen was always ready to help him if danger was imminent." This 
account — and especially the expression "coming to and fro" — implies a 
succession of rapid inroads and retreats arranged so as to avoid an en- 
counter with the injured clan. This aggression, of a furtive character 
and unredeemed by any display of bravery, assumes a peculiarly odious 
aspect from the time chosen for it — the time when nearly half the clansmen 
of Ivagha had departed for the national campaign. A few months after- 
wards this impetuous Sir James indulged in his hereditary practice once 
too often. Influenced by "hereditary enmity for Sir Cormac Mac Teig,,"^° 
he "made a raid into Muskerry without the co-operation of a confederate 
on the frontier, was wounded, seized and handed over to the English 
authorities of Cork, by whom he was executed in the barbarous fashion 
of the times. 

The incident which we have narrated illustrates the difficulties which 
lay in the way of a complete combination of the Southern tribes in 1579. 

After the close of the Desmond War, Sir John Perrot, Lord Deputy, 
summoned a Parliament for April, 1585, to which he invited the Heads of 

68 This Journal, July-Sept., 1908, p. 137- 

69 "Calendar of State Papers," 1587, p. 122. Donal describes his uncle, Sir Owen, 
as a "rude man," and as ignorant of the English language. 

70 "Vetere inimicitia, Muscriam depraedandi causa ingressus." O'Sullivan Beare's 
"Hist. Cath. Hiberniae," Dub. Ed., p. 119- Old enmity might also have been the 
motive for the raid on Ivagha. It was peculiarly impolitic at the time for any of the 
Desmonds to alienate Sir Cormac Mac Teig, who, model loyalist though he had been, 
secretly favoured the Rebellion and attended one meeting of the leaders on May loth, 
1580. (Lord Justice Pelham to Elizabeth.) "Sir Cormac let the traitors pass with their 
spoil." (So wrote St. Leger to Lord Burghley in 15S0.) 



138 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Septs'. In every historical notice of the O'Mahonys hitherto published it 
is stated that Conor Fionn O'Mahony attended "Perrot's Parliament." 
It is quite certain, however, that he did not attend ; he felt himself much 
safer in his land of castles and fastnesses. Neither did any other Chief ^^ 
from the South, except Mac Carthy More, then Earl of Clancar. The 
Roll of Perrot's Parliament, still preserved, and published by the Irish 
Archasol. Society in "Tracts Relating to Ireland," Dublin, 1840, is 
decisive on this point. The Four Masters, who first made that erroneous 
statement, took it for granted that all the Munster Chiefs responded to 
the invitation of the Lord Deputy, as did their own patron, O'Gara,'^^ and a 
few others from Connacht and Ulster. Their entry regarding Conor Fionn 
is here quoted because (though erroneous as a statement of fact) it is a 
correct genealogical record: " *Oo Cu^ii!) xMin -onA . . . O UlAtJAtfinA An 
"puinn lAtACAiAAij, Concot)Afv, mAC ConcAt)Ai|\ "pmn oicc, niAC Concot)Ai|\ 
pn-o, inic ConcobAijA "Ui tnAtgAriinA. — "Thither came O'Mahony of the 
Western Land, Conor, the son of Conor Fionn Og, the son of Conor Fionn, 
the son of Conor O'Mahony." 

Had he attended this Parliament, he would have the mortification of 
witnessing the attainder of a remote kinsman, "O'Mahony of Carbery" 
(slain in battle), and of a nearer relative. In the 8th chapter of the Act of 
Perrot's Parliament (2nd session), amongst the participators in the 
Desmond War, attainted and sentenced to death, was " Daniel Mac 
Conogher O'Mahowne of Rosbrin Castle, gentleman." But his attainder 
by name in the Act of Parliament had been forestalled by the action of 
the English authorities in 1584, in which year a lease from Queen Elizabeth 
conveyed to Oliver Lambert, gent., the Castle and demesne of Rosbrin, 
"containing half an acre of land, surrounded by a wall, with edifices 
therein," ^^ and "one thousand and eighty acres adjoining, parcel of the 
possessions of Donal O'M., of high treason attainted." As neither in 
this, nor in a subsequent document in 1602 regarding the Castle, is Donal 
mentioned as "slain in rebellion" or "executed for high treason"; he 
probably succeeded in escaping to the Continent. Unaware of the lease 
.to Lambert, one Teig Carty^* (ace. to State Papers, 1587) sought to obtain 

71 The invitation to Mullaghmast and its frightful sequel (in 1578) must have created 
alarm and inspired caution. 

72 To O'Gara's influence Dr. O'Donovan, in his Notes to Annals, 1579-1585, attributes 
the anti-national spirit in which the Four Masters relate the affairs of Munster during 
that period. 

73 Fiants, a.d. 1584, 4429. In the enumeration of the Rosbrin townlands in the lease 
is mentioned Illaune-Connista. This is, perhaps, the Conys Island in a map of the west 
coast, published in 1750. 

74 Teig applied on another occasion for confiscated land in Killorglin, Co. Kerry. 
This unknown Teig, the writer of the notice about the O'Mahony Clan in this "Journal," 
1897, converts into Mac Carthy Reagh (Sir Owen), of that period, and makes him apply 
for Rosbrin as "overlord," and not as a tenant at ;^5 a 3'ear. The writer of the notice 
then goes on to say that Mac Carthy's claim was referred to Bishop Lyon, who wrote in 
reference to the claim the letter we have already given in the account of Kinelmeky, to 
which alone the letter referred. This writer must have had the State paper entry about 
Teig Carty and Bishop Lyon's letter before him when he thus distorted and manufactured 
"history." He goes on to say that Teig O'M., grandson of Donal, attainted in 1562, 
got back Rosbrin Castle, £ad was attainted, and that he gave his name to the Sliocht 
Teig — which was already known for two centuries under that name. With equal regard 
for historical evidence, this writer makes a sweeping charge of piracy and wrecking against 
the Sept. He says "it was never a large Sept," not knowing the extent of the original 
tribeland. 



THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 1 39 

a bargain from the Privy Council by offering £^ for a "half acre called 
Rosbrin," hoping that they would not remember that there was a Castle 
on the plot of land. After the lapse of a few years, some confiscated lands 
having: been restored to their (Anglo-Irish) proprietors, by the weakness 
or policy of the English Government, numerous applications were made 
for similar concessions. In the "Docquet of Irish Suitors" (1594) and 
"List of particular suits" (1597) appear the names of O'Connor Sligo, 
Donal Mac Teig- O'Mahony "suing for Rosbrin," and a few others of the 
Irish. Donal was the grandson of the Donal who was put to death in 
Cork in 1562, as already narrated, and whose son Teig had gone after his 
father's death into the Spanish service and acquired the agnomen of 
Spainneach. Donal, son of Teig Spainneach, did not succeed in recover- 
ing Rosbrin. He joined O'Neill's Insurrection, and was one of the numer- 
ous recipients of pardons mentioned in the Fiants of 1602. Rosbrin was 
surrendered by Lambert to the Crown in 1602, was leased again to one 
Morgan, and thus passed away forever from its original proprietors, about 
whose subsequent fortunes nothing is recorded. 

The name of the insurgent owner of Dunbeacon Castle is shown in 
the Harleian MS. pedigree, Brit. Museum. He was Donal, son of Finin 
of Cruachan (Crookhaven), and grandson of the first "O'Mahon Fionn." 
He was, therefore, a first cousin of the ruling Chief in 1579. The Harleian 
MSS., in stating that he was "Lord of Dunbeacon with four ploughlands," 
and "living in 1600," does not necessarily imply that he retained the owner- 
ship until 1600. It is clear from a letter of Justice Jessua Smith in 1588 
that the castle was confiscated, and that its owner imitated the example 
of the expropriated Donal Grainne O'Mahon of Kinelmeky, who burned 
Castlemahon — "a like company hath burned Dunbeacon Castle." It seems 
to have been given to one Apsley (Smith, Hist, of Cork), from whom it 
passed to Hull. 

In the beginning of the year 1579, the Sept-land of Ivagha^^ contained 
one hundred and fifty ploughlands. The sea continued to be its principal 
source of wealth, as in past centuries. The large dues^^ paid by foreign 
vessels that came to trade or fish, the profits of trading with those vessels, 
and the fisheries, kept up a population that would be g'reatly reduced if it 
became mainly dependent on the land. In 1584 commenced the decay of 
the Sept, and continued until its downfall in 1649. Rosbrin and Dun- 
beacon were detached, by confiscation, from the remaining territory, and 
garrisoned by strangers. Strained relations arose between Spain and 
England, and the Spanish and Portuguese vessels that used to frequent 
the coast in such large numbers must have ceased to come. In 1586 the 

75 According to the Carew MSS., the lands of O'M. Fionn, including 36 ploughlands 
of the Sliocht Teig, were 141, but as this was the account for the period 1592-1601, the 
nine ploughlands of Rosbrin then confiscated are not enumerated. The total number, 
therefore, was one hundred and fifty in 1562, and again in 1578, when the Rosbrin family 
was restored to its lands. If we add to the above total for Ivagha, the sixty-three plough- 
lands of Kinelmeky and the sixty-three held by the three Minor Septs of West Muskerry, 
we find that out of their vast tribeland, "from Cork to Carn ui Neid" (Mizen Head) in 
the period before the English invasion, the O'Mahonys had retained two hundred and 
seventy-six ploughlands down to the time of the Desmond War. 

76 The Inquisition held after the death of Conor Fionn gives no information about 
those dues, but those of O'Driscoll were inserted in his Inquisition, as Crook, who got 
a grant of his rights, took care that they should be enumerated for his own purposes. 



140 THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

English Government went through the form of appointing a Commission " 
to inquire whether the dues and customs in the harbours of the southern 
and western coasts may not "belong of right to Her Majesty," and the 
finding of such a Commission was a foregone conclusion. The Chieftain 
of Ivagha had fallen on evil days, and had to raise funds by the hitherto 
unknown expedient of a mortgage, an expedient not consistent with the 
old Tribal Law. He mortgaged Innisfodda (Long Island) and "Callacrowe," 
equivalent to "three ploughlands," to one Richard Roche, of Kinsale, 
whose son continued in possession of the said lands until 1612. After 1590 
the Co. Cork Chieftains who still maintained their ancient status, alarmed 
at the extent of the confiscations, and at the continual arrival from England 
of adventurers hungering for more forfeitures, began to think of securing 
their possessions by a title derived from English Law. O'Mahon of Ivagha, 
O'Donovan, O'Callaghan, and Teig Owen MacCarthy of Brisbane, con- 
sulted together '^^ in the beginning of 1592, and decided to yield to the 
inevitable and adopt the policy of "surrender and regrant," i.e., to sur- 
render their tribelands to the English Sovereign, to be conveyed back to 
the Chiefs personally as feudal owners. They jointly signed a form of 
application to the Lord Deputy, drawn up by a lawyer named Thomas 
Gould. The request forwarded to Elizabeth was readily granted, for 
English policy had, for a long time, been aiming at the total abolition of 
Tanist Law, which generally ensured the selection of a capable head of a 
sept. In a letter to the Lord Deputy, dated March 4th, 1592, the Queers 
agrees to accept (inter alios) "from Conogher O'Mahon alias O'Mahon 
Fionn of Ivagha the surrender of his possessions, and to regrant the same 
to him and his heirs, without prejudice to any rights we may have or ought 
to have to these lands, &c. " ^^ 

What those heads of septs did through necessity when English power 
had become supreme in the South, had been done without such an excusing 
circumstance by McCarty Reagh in 1496, when the authority of Henry VI I. 
was almost a nullity outside the Pale, and by McCarthy More long before 
the issue of the Desmond War extinguished the hope of Celtic independ- 
ence. This procedure of "surrender and regrant" has been often con- 
demned as a spoliation of the clansmen, whose rights to a share of the 
tribeland were as definite as that of the Chief to his portion, and who 
would become the tenants at will of a Chief converted into a feudal land- 
lord. No doubt, in course of time, that evil result was experienced. But 
in presence of the danger of confiscation for the benefit of English adven- 
turers, the conversion of their own Chief into a landlord would probably 
appear to the clansmen, if they discussed the matter at all, the least of 
two evils. In Ivagha the "surrender and regrant" made no change in the 
immemorial relations between the Chief and his subordinates; the suc- 
cessors of Conogher were content with their hereditary portion and their 
old rents ; they recognised all existing rights of occupancy, and never exer- 
cised over their cousins' lands the newly-acquired feudal authority. This 
is amply proved by nurnerous "Inquisitions" of the owners of castles and 

77 Cal. of State Papers, 1587. 

7 8 The meeting place must have been in Cork City, where doubtless the lawyer, 
Thomas Gould, resided. 

79 Morrin's Patent Rolls. A memorandum of Gould's states that the letter was 
enrolled on January, 1594. The Patents of the other Chiefs were renewed by James I. 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I4I 

pluLiglilaiids in Ivagha, who arc described as "owners in fee," and as let- 
ting lands to tenants without any reference to the Chief. 

Conor Fionn died on March 20th, 1592, a few weeks after he had ex- 
changed his ancient status for that of a feudal proprietor. 

From the preceding history it is evident that the succession of Chiefs 
had been in strict accordance with Tanist Law, which would not be the 
case if the Sept of Ivagha recognised any overlord as having a discre- 
tionary power to interfere with its choice by refusing "the rod of Chief- 
taincy." Wherever such a right was admitted it was not suffered to fall 
into abeyance, but exercised from time to time, and its exercise recorded. 
The existence of such a right would be specially exhibited in the case of a 
disputed succession. Now, in the one instance of a dispu^^ed succession — 
after the death of Finin "the scholar," in 1496, not only is there no evid- 
ence of any interposition by an overlord, but such a supposition is clearly 
negatived by the wording of the entry in the Annals of the Four Masters, 
under the year 1513. The entry (quoted page 190 supra) taken in con- 
nection with O'Donovan's note, makes it plain that the first O'Mahon 
Fionn, by his own energy, and not by the favouritism of an outsider, 
forced his way to the headship, "the hands of both senior and junior rivals 
being raised to prevent him." It is a mistake to suppose that a payment 
of a chiefry was, as a matter of course, a recognition of the right to 
inaugurate. Many instances might be given to prove this asser- 
tion, but the following extracts from McCarthy More's^° claims should 
suffice: — "The Eighth is the country of McGillacuddy. He (McC. More) 
claimeth the Rising out, the giving of the Rod, the finding of 30 gallow- 
glasses. . . . The Eleventh is the country of O'Donoghue-Glan (of the 
Glens). He (McCarthy More) hath there no other duty (i.e., right) 
except six and forty shillings of yearly rent." To supply some evidence 
of the "giving of the Rod" in Ivagha, Mr. McCarthy (Glas) quotes "a 
marginal note to the pedigree of the O'Mahonys at Lambeth," and 
attempts to prove that the note is in the handwriting" of Sir George Carew : 
"O'Mahon 's country doth follow the ancient Tanist law. Unto whom 
McCarthy Reagh shall give the white rod, he is O'Mahon . . . the elec- 
tion avails not without the rod." Now, Carew could not have written 
that note. He knew that, seven years before he became President of 
Munster, the usage of Tanistry was abolished in Ivagha by the surrender 
and regrant, and he himself had got in 1501 the custody and wardship 
of O'Mahon's son Donal, "as being the son under age of a feudal pro- 
prietor." The note was most probably the guess-work of the same 
English genealogist, who re-wrote it in the Herald Office (a.d. 1600) 
pedigree and notes — the blunders of which document we have previously 
exposed. 

Conor Fionn had been the ruler of the Sept for about eighteen years. 
He was the last Chieftain who succeeded to anything like the power and 
resources of his predecessors an the West since a.d. 1260. His adherents 
were strong enough to prevent any interference with the "regrant" which 
secured for his eldest son, Donogh — then only 10 years of age — the inheri- 
tance of his possessions. The adopiion of the English Law of Primo- 
geniture, whatever may have been its advantages, had certainly the effect 

80 State paper of 15S8 in "Life of Florence McCarthy Mor," p. 33. 



142 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

of diminishing the power and importance of the Sept during the troubled 
period between 1592 and 1602. During that decade it had neither a leader 
nor a figurehead, and consequently obtained less prominence in the Irish 
and English accounts of the time than other septs whose resources were 
inferior. The successor by Tanist Law^^ was Conogher "Bhade" (<\n 
Mid ?), who had married the daughter of O'Mahony of Carbery. But 
Conogher Bhade being excluded by the "surrender and regrant" from the 
castles, lands and rents that were attached from time immemorial to the 
office of Chieftain, was reduced to a mere "nominis umbra"; and his 
existence is known only from the genealogies ; he is not mentioned in the 
history of the times. The English Government did not omit to take 
advantage of one of the "incidents" of feudal tenure in order to bring 
the sept more completely under its control. According to an entry in the 
Calendar of State Papers for the year 1597, "Sir Geoffrey Fenton ob- 
tained from the Crown a grant of the custody, wardship and marriage of 
Donogh, son of Conor O'Mahon, alias O'Mahon Fionn, late of Arden- 
tynan." But the legal power thus taken and intended to be availed of, 
if circumstances should permit or require, appears not to have been exer- 
cised. Young Donogh was in Ivagha three years after, though still a 
minor; for he must be" the O'Mahon Fionn whom Carew, in his letter to 
the Privy Council (dated April, 1600), mentions with some other Chiefs 
described as "friends," i.e., relatives of Florence McCarthy, ^^ of whom 
the Government was becoming suspicious. It was not unusual at that 
period to allow minors, after being formally claimed as wards, to live 
with their own families. Florence McCarthy, when a minor, was per- 
mitted to live at home instead of being sent to Dublin or domesticated with 
Sir W. Drury, who obtained a right to his wardship. ^^ 

In 1598, six weeks after O'Neill's great victory of Aug. 14th, a strong 
force despatched by him under Tyrell arrived in Munster (Oct. 3rd), and 
Cecyll was informed that "the very day tliey set foot in the Province, 
Munster to a man was in arms before noon." The Earl of Ormond mus- 
tered the Queen's troops, diminished by the desertion of two hundred Irish, 
and marched to Mallow, Only one Irish Chief came to the assistance of 
the English Government in its hour of need. "Thither came McCarthy 
Reagh with sixty foot and forty horse, all furnished." (Ormond 's 
Journal, Oct. 14th.) That was all McCarthy could raise in his own imme- 
diate tribeland, and he could not influence the West Cork Clans, who 
judged for themselves what cause they would support by their forces ; 
the epithet "vassal" clans applied to them by Professor W. F. Butler was in- 
accurate and unhistorical. This circumstance may serve as a commentary on 
McC. Glas's remark in his Life of Florence : — "How important it was to 
the Government to secure the services of the Sept of McCarthy." From 
Mallow, Ormond marched to Cork (Journal, Oct. 17th), where "McC. 

81 For that reason the square mark indicating Chieftaincy is placed near his name 
in the Harleian MS. pedigree, which, however, represents him as an illegitimate son of 
Donal, a former Chieftain, but the Carew (Lambeth) document, a better authority, con- 
tradicts this opinion. 

82 His mother (Conor Fionn's first wife) having been McCarthy Reagh's daughter, 
he was a cousin of Florence. If then in custody as a ward, he would not be mentioned 
with possible confederates. Carew's reference could not be to Conogher "Bhade," whose 
son, but not himself, is mentioned (Harleian MS.) as "alive in i6oo." 

83 McCarthy (Glas), "Life of Florence," p. 13. 



THE OMAHONVS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I43 

Reagh delivered his son Fynin as a pledge lor himself, Conor O'DriscoU 
(son of Sir Finin) and O 'Donovan till they delivered their own pledge" — 
which they never sent. It is significant that he could not speak for the 
O'Mahony Sept, but Ormond went through the form of ordering that 
"all the rest in Carbery send in their pledges within three days" — an order 
not complied with. 

In 1600, March 6th, when O'Neill fixed his camp at Inniscarra, he was 
visited by some representatives of the Western O'Mahony Sept, as well 
as by Moelmoe, head of the eastern Sept ; the Annals of the F. M. speak of 
them in the plural, "Thither came ... the O'Mahonys," &:c., &c. This 
event marked out the western clan for the attentions of Sir Henry Power, ^'^ 
then President of Munster, who describes his retaliation in his letter to 
the Privy Council on April 30th, 1600. "I sent in the beginning of April 
a thousand men (under Captain Flower) into Carbery, with directions 
either to waste it or to take assurance of the freeholders at their first 
entry. They took a great prey and killed divers of the O'Mahons, the 
principal men of that part (i.e., of Carbery)." Captain Flower, in his own 
account, ^^ does not give exactly the same description of his exploits in 
Ivagha. After stating how he "killed many of the churles and poor people 
in O'Donovan's country, not leaving a grain of corn within ten miles," 
he adds: "Having spoiled Clan Dermod, and upon our march into 
O'Mahon Fionn's country, I had certain intelligence that Florence 
McCarthy had prepared 1,800 men to intercept me on my return. I re- 
turned to Ross." Possibly the guerilla warfare of the clansmen against 
his superior force had something to do with his change of mind. A speci- 
men of his skill in placing his retrograde movements in a favourable light 
in his reports may be seen in Mr. McCarthy Glas's Life of Florence, p. 240. 
It is significant that though Sir H. Power says he took with him a thousand 
men, Hugh Cuffe ^^ writes that "Captain Flower returned from Carbery 
with 680 foot and 80 horse." Joshua Aylmer,^^ one of their officers, reports 
that the foot, which so valiantly killed O'Donovan's "poor churles" (non- 
combatants), "retired most shamefully with little less than running away," 
when charged by Dermod O'Connor's kerne near Ballinhassig, a fortnight 
after those exploits in West Carbery. (Aylmer to Cecil, April 21st, 1600.) 
Carew, who succeeded Power about the beginning of May, improved on 
the tactics of his predecessors, who made raids on tribelands at a time 
when the corn was not ripe. He ordered his officers to wait "in their 
garrisons in or near the rebels' land" until August, and then to destroy their 
corn instead of encountering them in battle- The result of these warlike 
tactics was that the "O'Maghons and O'Crowleys were thoroughly broken 
and were unable to hold up their heads next year." (Pacata Hibernia, Bk. i. 
p. 138.) The writer goes on to say that they sued for peace through Sir R. 
Percy, who commanded in Kinsale, and obtained "Her Majesty's protec- 
tion, which being granted they remained loyal subjects until the Spanish 

84 Sir R. Percy, commander at Kinsale, invaded Kinelmekv, tlie tribeland of the 
Eastern Sept, on the following November. (Vid. supra, Jan. -March, 1909, p. 9.) 

85 See the State paper, "A Brief Note (Jl Capt. Flower's Journey into Carbery, April 
1st, 1600," in the "Life of Florence McCarthy," p. 242. 

86 Op. citat. p. 244. 

87 Op. citat. p. 243. The writer explains his success in the skirmish, notwithstanding 
the "faint courage of the foot." 



144 THE OMAHONVS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGUA. 

came," The above passages have been erroneously understood of the 
"O'Maghons" ®^ of Kinelmeky, whom the same Sir Percy, about two 
months after, invaded as rebels under no protection. Next year, 1601, 
according to the Calendar of State Papers, Sir George Carew obtained 
"a grant of the custody, wardship and .marriage of Donal, (second son 
of Conor O'Mahon,*^ late of Ardentynan." A.D. 1601 was the year of 
the Spanish Invasion; Don Juan de Aquila's fleet entered Kinsale Harbour 
on Sept. 23rd. As is plainly implied in the passage quoted from the 
Pacata Hibernia, the Ivagha Clan, shattered though it was by the events 
above narrated, sent a contingent under some one of its principal men 
to Kinsale. 

After the disaster at Kinsale, though most of their neighbours sub- 
mitted to Carew, the Clan of Ivagha still held out. They garrisoned two 
of their Castles that appeared to be best fatted for defence, Leamcon and 
Dunmanus. Carew despatched to the West (March 19th, 1602, new style) 
one of the Irish Chiefs that aided him at Kinsale, Donogh O'Brien, Earl 
of Thomond. The "Instructions for the Earl of Thomond," given in 
page 517 of the Pacata Hibernia, are as follows : — " .... The service 
you are to perform is to do all your endeavour to burn the rebels' corn in 
Carbery (which included Ivagha), Beare and Bantry, take their cows, and 
use all hostile persecution upon the persons of the people as in such cases 
of rebellion is accustomed. Those that are in subjection or lately pro- 
tected, as O'Driscoll, O'Donovan, and Sir Owen McCarthy's sons, to 
afford them all kind and mild usuage. " Another passage of the Pacata 
Hibernia, p. 505, referring to those who submitted, says : — "As for Sir 
Finnin O'Drisooll, O'Donovan, and the two sons of Sir Owen McCarthy, 
they and their followers, since their coming in (submitting), are grown 
very odious to the rebels of those parts, and are so well divided in factions 
amongst themselves, &c., &c. 

From the same author we learn that on May 26th, when the Earl of 
Thomond was besieging Dunboy, he despatched a foraging party to Dun- 
manus, whence he succeeded in bringing off a "prey of three score and 
six cows with a great many garrans" (p. 544). On the 4th of next 
month a body of soldiers "went to Dunmanus Castle, which was held and 
guarded by the rebels, which they surprised and kept the same, killed four 
of the guard" (p. 546). The troops were accompanied to Dunmanus by 
Owen O' Sullivan and his brothers (sons of the late Sir Owen), who always 
sided with the English, earning for themselves and their posterity the 
sobriquet of "galldha" (ghoula). It is difficult to understand the story 
of a "surprise," seeing that the upper rooms in which the defenders were 
are completely inaccessible from the ground floor and vault. What Carew 
would have termed "a surprise" may be known from the stratagem he 
planned for taking Blarney Castle in the absence of its owner. Sir Charles 
Wilmot, with only a sergeant's guard of two dozen men, presenting the 
appearance of attendants, was directed to go beyond Blarney "to hunt 
the wild deer," and on returning, as if wearied by the chase, to stop at 
the Castle, ask for refreshments, and overpower the guard. This un- 

88 So the name is always spelled in the "Pacata Hibernia." 

89 In the Calendar "Donal O'M., late of Ardentynane" — a mistake, as the late owner 
of that Castle was "Conor O'M." 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. I 45 

knightly plot to take advantage of the v.'ell-known Irish hospitality was 
foiled by the suspiciousness of McCarthy's warders, who perhaps may have 
heard of a similar plan being employed two months before at Dunmanus. 
{Pac. Hibern, p. 599.) 

On the fourth day after Dunboy Castle was blown up, according to the 
Pacata Hibernla, the Castle of Leamcon, "which the rebels warded," was 
taken by Captain Roger Harvey's Company. This was the most defensible 
of the Ivagha Castles, situate as it was on a small peninsula approachable 
only by a narrow neck of land, about six feet wide. We are not told 
how long the siege continued. The western wall of the castle near its 
base, by its deeply indented condition (shown distinctly in the photograph 
reproduced facing page 122), bears evidence that the besieging in- 
strument called "the Sow" was brought to bear on it, and that 
much progress was made towards opening a breach. The defenders, 
doubtless, lacked an adequate supply of powder — the chief want experi- 
enced by the Irish in the Co. Cork. Three years previously Lords Barry 
and Roche complained that they had no powder in their castles, and 
Ormond "gave them a small quantity." Dunboy was an exception, for it 
had been supplied with ordnance and powder by the Spanish general. 

The owner of the Castle of Leamcon, at the time of the siege, was 
Conogher O'M. , son of Daniel, son of Finin Caol, a former chieftain of 
Ivagha (vid. supra). He and his warders, on surrendering the Castle, 
received quarter, which Carew would not grant before the fall of Dunboy. 
This may be inferred from a document in the Pacata Hibernia (p. 428), 
"A list of those who shipped themselves to Spain on July 7th, 1602," in 
which we find the name of "Conor O'M. of Leamcon, one of theO'Mahons 
of Ivagha." 

On the last day of June, Carew set out on his return journey to Cork, 
leaving six garrisons in Carbery, one of them being at Abbeystrowry, not 
far from the boundary of Ivagha. He considered the insurrection now at 
an end. but in his journey through Carbery he found that he was mis- 
taken : — "Those that were before distracted had received new life, and 
made fast combinations to hold out till expected aid from Spain should 
arrive." "All this alteration" he socn found "did arise from the arrival 
of Owen Mac Egan (Bishop-elect of Ross), who brought with him Spanish 
treasure" and a promise of another Spanish expedition. The Spanish 
money was distributed among the Irish leaders; the portion intended for 
the Ivagha insurgents was probably conveyed to them by a member of 
their clan, "Donnell O'Mahon," who came over with Owen Mac Egan 
(Pac. Hibernia, p. 429), and returned to Spain on July 7th. The list of 
those who received the Spanish money was given in the Pacata Hibernia 
on the testimony of Owen O'Sullivan's wife, who was kept as a hostage 
in Dunboy by O'Sullivan Beare's orders, and was there when Owen Mac 
Egan landed at Ardea, June 6th. ^° Neither before or after her liberation, 
at the fall of the castle, would she be entrusted with Irish secrets, being 
the wife of a bitter enemy. 

Within ten days after Carew 's departure all the western insurgents 
had re-formed their combination. They were attacked and harassed by 

9 She had, therefore, no opportunity of seeing his meeting with the Irish leaders. 
Her assertion that O'Donovan got a portion of the money is intrinsically incredible, as 
he had become a loyalist and remained so. 



146 THE o'mAHONYS of KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

Captain Roger Harvey, who had the chief command of the six garrisons, 
"who took their preys and had the killing of many of their men; besides 
he took from them divers castles, strongly seated near unto the sea, where 
ships might safely ride, and fit places for an enemy to hold, as, viz., the 
Castles of Dunmanus, Leamcon, &c, " (Pacata Hihernia, pp. 584-585.) 
From this passage and its context it is plain that the O'Mahons of Ivagha, 
after Carew's departure, regained possession of the two Castles they had 
lost, and that some time before the renewed struggle ended, they were 
again dislodged. The want of ammunition could not be supplied in 
Ireland by Spanish gold. The Insurrection came to a close in the follow- 
ing January (1603) at the skirmish in Grillagh, where Teig O'Mahon dis- 
tinguished himself, and where the lion-hearted Owen Mac Egan was killed. 
(O'S. Beare, Hist. Cath. Hiherniae, p. 243.) 

On March loth of the troubled year 1602, Donogh O'Mahon, the 
nominal head of a leaderless Clan, still under age, died at Ardintennane 
Castle. He had mariried the daughter of O 'Donovan in the previous year. 
His brother Donal, also under age, succeeded him. As these brothers were 
too young to have taken part personally in the Rising, and as they were 
minors and "wards," their territory was secured from forfeiture. From 
the Inquisition held about his father's property in 1612, we learn that Donal, 
on the death of his brother, immediately entered into the possession of his 
lands and effects — a proof that though a ward of Carew's he had not been 
removed from his home. In the reign of James I. this could not happen. 
The grantee of a ward (under the Court of Wards, founded by Bacon's 
advice as "a means to weed out Popery") was required "to maintain and 
educate the minor in the English religion and habits in Trinity College, 
Dublin." 

From Donal's accession down to the Confiscation in 1650 the history 
of the Clan is little more than a record of continuous decay. An exodus 
took place to France and Spain of the principal men of the Sept, who 
were compromised in the Rebellion, and of the clansmen who were brought 
to destitution by the burnings and pillagings their land had undergone in 
the three preceding years. The majority of the refugees of the Co. Cork 
tribes went to Spain, where they were most hospitably received by the 
King and the Spanish nobles, and the Bishops. From such refugees the 
King formed an Irish Legion, which was commanded successively by 
Henry and John, sons of Hugh O'Neill, and which won great distinction 
in Flanders. It is not generally known that the first Irish Brigade — a 
celebrated name in the military history of Europe, was formed in the King 
of Spain's service. The Irish nobles and gentlemen, while waiting for 
Commissions in the Army, had pensions assigned to them and paid monthly 
(O'S. Beare 's Hist. Cath., p. 262, Dublin Ed).^^ An English spy in 1606 
sent a report (Cal. State Papers, 1606) that among the "Gentlemen Pen- 
sioners" in the army of the King of Spain as yet without a command 
were — "Conogher O'Mahon, Teig na Bally O'Mahon, Donal O'Mahon." 

^1 Ingens turba in Galliam, longe major in Hispaniam confluxit. In eos Rex 
Hispaniae tanto fuit amore ut vix ullus possit oratione complecti quantum illi debeant 

nobilioribus menstruos nummos vectigales pro sua cuique conditione assignavit. 

Ex illis in Gallia Belgica Legionem conscribi jussit quae prius sub Henrico filio O'Neilli 
principis, &c. (O'Sullivan Beare, Don Philip, Hist. Cath., p. 262.) That author and 
his brother and a cousin were officers in the Spanish Navy. 



THE O MAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 1 47 

In all probability the first-named was the dispossessed owner of Leamcon 
Castle, who has been already mentioned as a refugee. The names of 
many others of their kindred would, doubtless, be found in the Archives 
of the Spanish Army and Navy for the seventeenth century, and especially 
for the years succeeding the Cromwellian Confiscation. 

The necessities of the new Chieftain, and also of his kinsmen the other 
landowners of Ivagha, in consequence of the devastations and the loss of 
their old resources already described, are plainly indicated by the letting 
of their lands, sometimes for a long term of years, to strangers. Donal 
is shown, by the Inquisitions ^^ held about his father's and his own pro- 
perty, to have had in his own possession the three Castles of Ardintennane, 
Ballydevlin and Dunlogh (Three Castles Head), with the ploughlands that 
went with them, receiving " chief ries" from the owners of the other 
castles. In 1607 he let Ardintennane,^^ with nine ploughlands attached, 
to one Thomas Holland for "a term of years" (Inquisition), and on the 
expiration of the term he appears to have let it again to one Sir Geoffrey 
Galway. He chose Ballydevlin Castle as his permanent residence. This 
is a suitable occasion for exposing a misleading source of information 
regarding that locality and the West Coast generally. Speed's Map ("one 
of Speed's bad maps," to quote Smith's criticism) represents Ivagha — 
spelled by him "Eragh" — as not including the peninsula of Kilmoe, and 
places an imaginary tribe, "O'Connor," at Ballydevlin and its vicinity. 
Speed can never have visited that coast, as he almost fills Roaring Water 
Bay with islands of about the same shape, there being no "Long Island" 
among them. The townlands of Kilmoe are fully known from the numer- 
ous Inquisitions, and there was certainly in it no such tribe or such place- 
name as "O'Connor." Perhaps having heard that the place was occupied 
by "Donal Mac Conor" (O'M.), Speed changed the name "Mac Conor" 
into "O'Connor," as Mac Carthy has been found written "O'Carthy in 
some State Papers. 

In 1627 Dunlogh Castle ("Three Castle Head'"), with the ploughlands 
of Dunlogh, Kildunlogh, and three others, was let to one Coghlan, who 
in a later document appears to have divided his rights to the land with 
Boyle, Earl of Cork. 

In the numerous Government Inquisitions held between 1612 and 1637 

92 Besides the "Inquisitions" held about the two Chieftains, Conor and his son Donal, 
the following are preserved in the Record Office. All were taken in the reigns of James I. 
and Charles I. : — 

No. 286. Mahon O'Mahon. 

5, 212. Finin Mac Conogher Mac David O'Mahon, 

,, 214, Telg O'Mahon. 

„ 285. Donal O'Mahon. 

,, 202. Finin Mac Conogher Geancagh O'Mahon. 

,, 317. Donogh O'Mahon. 

,, 353. Dermod Mac David O'Mahon. 

,, 420. Teig O'Mahon. 

„ 478. Thaddaeus Leigh Mac Donal O'Mahon. 

,, 439. Finin Geancagh O'Mahon. 

J, 496. Dermod O'Mahon. 

— David O'M. of Leamcon. 

— Teig O'M. of Ballyrisode. 

93 The name of the Castle is generally spelled by Carew "Ardintynan," and_ as he 
generally spelled phonetically, the Irish name was most probably <A|fo An rfAisneAin, 
the height of the thunderbolt. 



148 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

about the different proprietors of Ivagha, cousins of the Chieftain, they 
are all recog'nised as owners in fee simple. Neither Leamcon nor Dun- 
manus was forfeited by the action of their defenders during the "Rebel- 
lion"; they were held to be the property of the young Chief, who was a 
minor, and thus of his successor, througii whom, probably, the next-of-kin 
of those defenders succeeded to those Castles and lands. In 1622 the two 
representatives of Conor O'M. of Leamcon (owner at the time of the siege), 
leased to Sir William Hull, the one six and the other seven ploughlands 
for fifty and thirty-four years, respectively. 

A brief account will now be given of the territory of the minor sept 
(called after a "Teig" who lived before 1400), "Sliocht Teig O'Mahowne," 
so often referred to in State papers. Of "the thirty-six plough- 
lands," Donogh O'M. of Skeaghanore (a ploughland not of the 
Sliocht) held twenty-two in 1602 ; Teig O'M. of Ballyrisode, held four, 
and some others held, severally, the remaining ten. After the death 
of Donogh, and during the minority of his son, Dermod, then only six 
years old, the all-grasping Boyle, afterwards Earl of Cork, seized the lands 
in 161 5 on tho x>lea that he purchased them from one Donogh McCarthy, 
who alleged that they were "sold to him twenty years before by the uncle 
of the deceased Donogh O'Mahon." Boyle, in his diary of April i6th, 
1 616, writes of having given some timber "from my woods in the lands 
of Sliocht Teig O'Mahowne." He sold the lands, doubtless at a good 
profit, to one Morgan Peake, against whom a Chancery suit was instituted 
on behalf of Dermod in 1623. The Chancery Bill states that plaintiff is 
Dermod O'M., of Skeaghanore, gentleman, . . . whose ancestors held 
quiet possession for two hundred and forty years," and sets forth his 
demand with great minuteness. We don't know the details of the case, 
or the "order made in 1628" iCal. State Papers), but the presumption is 
against Boyle's bona fides. It would not be the first of his shady trans- 
actions. Florence McCarthy Mor complained in the Tower that he was a 
sufferer by "Boyle's tricks." And the Earl of Ormond had some time 
before written that "Boyle had been the means of overthrowing many of 
Her Majesty's subjects by finding false titler. to their lands and turning 
them out." Dermod O'M. recovered some of his land at all events, for 
in the Book of Survey and Distribution (1657) we find him having eleven 
hundred acres at Ardura, which was in the Sliocht Teig's territory. 
Dermod's family was known in Ivagha as "O'M. of Muscrigh" (Mus- 
kerry), some one of his ancestors having been fostered by one of his 
namesakes in West Muskcrry. 

In 1616 an arbitrary act of James I. displayed his utter disregard for 
the rights which the Irish. Chiefs had acquired by "surrender and re- 
grant," and must have spread a sense of insecurity through every tribe- 
land in the County Cork- This was his grant tO' a favoured Scotchman (one 
Sir James Sempell) of the lands of Kilbrittain, and many other ploughlands 
which Mac Carthy Reagh held by Letters Patent, of a great part of Ivagha, 
including Ardintennane, and nine ploughlands of which O'Mahon 's father, 
the former chief, got a re-grant in 1593, and of several "chief ries," those 
of "Sliocht Teig O'Mahowne," and others. There is evidence, however, 
that the grant was not put into execution. Its impolicy, perhaps, rather 
than its flagrant illeo-ality and dishonesty, weighed with the King's ad- 



THE OMAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 149 

visers, on reconsideration, and caused it to be iei't in abeyance."^ In none 
of the Ivagha Inquisitions is there any mention of a head rent, or rent, 
to Sempell or to his assignees being a charge on the lands. 

In this connection, it may be stated that neither is there mention made 
in any of the above Inquisitions of the chiefry called "The Earls' Beeves," 
which is admitted in one of O'Driscoll's Inquisitions, and in one of 
Mac Carthy Reagh's. An Earl of Desmond had probably sometime in 
the 14th century succeeded in imposing a tribute of a hundred beeves on 
Carbery, or the most of it. After Desmond's attainder the Government 
continued to exact this "slavish tax," as Cox calls it in his 
Regnum Corcagiense. As Ivagha appears to have escaped paying 
any portion of it, the Chief did not attend a meeting held about 
1610 by the principal men in the West to obtain remission of the 
tax. There is nothing else to record about Clan or Chieftain until Oct. 
23rd, 1641. Nicholas Browne, an undertaker, who knew the Irish well, 
warns the Privy Council of England, in Elizabeth's reign, that "the]- (the 
Irish) are expecting from tyme to tyme to take advantage to recover the 
lands of their ancestors, and to expell the English." Such an opportunity 
seemed to be presented by the dissension between Charles I. and the 
Parliament in 1641. It has been sought to represent this Insurrection as 
a war of Catholics against Protestants, and not of despoiled Irishmen 
against English Planters. A different and truer view of it was expressed 
by Lord Castlehaven, a contemporary witness, and by Lord Clarendon, 
witness of a similar movement in 1685; "the contest," writes Clarendon to 
Rochester, "is not so much about religion as between English and Irish, 
and that is the truth." Professor Mahaffy, in An Epoch of Irish History, 
thinks it noteworthy that the day selected for the outbreak, Oct. 23rd, 
was St. Ignatius' Day — "very significant as showing Jesuit influences." 
He found a mare's nest; the Feast of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, 
is July 31st. If he read the history of South Munster, he would have 
known that in 1261, when Normans and Celts worshipped at the same 
altars, the Irish "rose against the English adventurers, burned twelve 
castles and killed their English warders." ^^ (O'Donovan's Note to 
Four M., year 1261.) 

Though there had been no general confiscation in Ivagha, Rosbrin had 
been confiscated, with its nine ploughlands, and Dunbeacon, with its three 
ploughlands. Sir W. Hull occupied Dunbeacon, and year by year was 
acquiring leasehold interests from impoverished landholders, and thus 
greatly encroached on the tribeland. As an undertaker he probably had 
the highly unpopular qualities of that class, which, according to Camden, 
were the principal cause of the rising in Munster in 1598. By his own 
account, given in his "Depositions," all Ivagha seems to have besieged 
him and his retainers at Crookhaven, and his sons at Leamcon, and taken 
his culverin and his goods. Though he claims to have repelled the "rebels," 

94 The two O'Donovans of the time bargained with the Scotch adventurer for 3 share 
of his grant, and he procured for them Patents giving them the above head-rents. But 
these Patents also were soon set aside. That of O'Donovan Na Carton is not mer.tioned 
at all in his Inquisition. (Appendix to "Annals F. M.," p. 2,473.) 

95 Religious liberty, taken away by so many English Statutes since 1536, was, of 
course, one motive of the insurrections of 1598 and 1641, but the assumption that but for 
the religious differences the Irish would make no effort to recover their lands, does not 
show much knowledge of human nature. 



150 THE o'mAHONYS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 

he goes on to say that he and his staff got on board an English ship and 
sailed to a place of security. He bestows the name of "robbers" on the 
leaders of the Sept, who, no doubt, when they spoke of him, returned the 
t'ompliment. He mentions as his "chief robbers" great O'Mahowne alias 
O'M. Foone (Fionn), of Kilmoe, in the Barony of Ivagha, gent., Denis 
Ruadh O'Mahowne, Lord of the Castell of Dunmanus, gent., and others." 
Towards the end he mentions "Dermod Merriga (Mergeach) O'M., of 
Gubbeyne," who bore a sobriquet usual in the Kerry branch of the O'M. 
at that period. "Great O'Mahon" — a term also used by Cox — is a rather 
crude translation of "O'Mahon More," analogous to O' Sullivan More 
and McCarthy More; the epithet being always given to the head of the 
senior of two septs of the same name. 

When Hull and the occupant of Rosbrin and some other planters had 
taken their departure, the members of the Clan helped the insurrection in 
S)ther localities. Hence, besides the Chief, Donal, and Donogh of Dun- 
manus Castle, the following were outlawed at Youghal in Aug., 1642 
(as transcribed from a MS. in British Museum, Add. 4772) : — 

"O'Mahowne, Kean of Geary, gentleman. 

,, Dermod of Skeaghanore, alias O'M. of Muscrigh, 

gentleman. 
,, Conor, of Leamcon, do. ; 

,, Kean alias O.M., of Ballinskeagh, do.. 

,, Florence, of Arderavingy, do. • 

,, Conogher Mac Finin, of GortranuUy, do. 

,, Conogher alias O'M. Mac Idwylia, do. 

,j McDermod Finin, of Knockiculleen, do. 

,, McDermod John Mac Teig, of Long Island, do." 

The outlawry had no effect until the end of 1649. At some date within that 
period of seven years Donal died, and was succeeded by his son Conor, 
the last O'Mahon Fionn, who in a short t'me became a mere titular Chief. 
The Book of Survey and Distribution and The Down Survey give the 
remainder of the history of the broken clan, though for some reason or 
other best known to the compilers, fully one-third of the confiscated pro- 
prietors, including many of those in the above list, are not mentioned. 
"Dermod of Skeaghanore, Irish Papist, forfeited 1,460 acres." A Dermod 
of Kilcrohane 284 acres, and in Durrus an O'M. named "Mac an doille" 
646 acres. The family of Dunmanus lost 1,600, and the family of 
Leamcon ^^ 1,240 acres. The then nominal Chief, Conor, is described as 
living in Ballydevlin Castle. Tradition tells that he and the nominal 
Chief of Kinelmeky met at some assembly of the Irish, and that a tribal 
bard, impressed by the occasion, composed an elegy, which was preserved 
in the beginning of the last century, but of which now only the two intro- 
ductory lines survive : — 

O tTlAtj-Ariin^ x\n l^t^cAit^, A^uf cigexifnA Cine^t mbeice 
tDeifc "DO t)i t)' tiseAiAnxMf Y x\noif as iAf|\Ai-6 "oeitvce. 

From the destitution at home which the bard laments they doubtless 
sought refuge in Spain. So also did many of the other proprietors of 

5 6 In the lands that were attached to Leamcon there is an ancient Columbarium, 
now in a ruinous condition. 



THE OMAHONVS OF KINELMEKY AND IVAGHA. 151 

Ivagha, but some remained in the condition of tenants on the freeholds 
they once held. One of these was the son of Dermod of Skeaghanore, who 
lived on a farm in Ardura, part of the Sliocht Teig lands, his father's 
property. He made his will in 1719 (now in Record Office), which, though 
then aged, he signed in a clear distinct hand, "Kean O'Mahon" — which 
shows that th2 present form of the surname was not then in use in the 
West. He leaves to his children "the Irish interest I had in this plough- 
land (.of Ardura) if it ever be restored," bequeathing a hope doomed to dis- 
appointment. 

At the time of the Down Survey (1657) nearly all the Castles ^^ were un- 
tenanted and described as "ruinous." The ancient name, Ivagha, survived 
while the Irish language was spoken in the district. (This Journal, vol ii., 

A summary of the principal points which have been established by 
the citation of original sources may now be given. It has been shown 
that (i) the Sept was the first of the Eoghanacht Clans, descended 
from Core, that formed a separate existence ; that (2) from the beginning 
of the sixth century its Chief ruled from Rath Rathleann the territory 
from Cork to the Mizen Head, including Kinelea called after its tribe- 
name ; (3) that the tribeland became the Diocese of Cork in the ecclesi- 
astical organisation of the country ; (4) that two of the Chieftains became 
Kings of Munster ; (5) that its predominance in South Munster con- 
tinued iintil the twelfth century ; (6) that the division into the Eastern 
and Western Sept took place about the middle of the thirteenth century. 
Neither of the two branches ever sided with the English against their 
fellow-countrymen during the long struggle which ended in 1603. 

^7 Amongst the others in Ivagha the "Survey" mentions "Castle Isle," in an island 
close to the Chief's residence, Andintennane. Lewis ("Topogr. Diet.") erroneously says 
that this was built by the O'Donovans His conjectures as to the dates when the other 
O'Mahony Castles were built are equally erroneous. The islands now called the "Skeams" 
were anciently named "East and West Inniskean." They belonged to Ivagha, being part 
of the endowment of the See of Cork, as we learn from Dive Downes, who had access to 
the old Archives of the See. 



ADDENDA. 

1.— The "F6ilire of Oengus" (ob. circa 840), under the Sth of December, mentions "Tech 
Saxan in Hui-Eachach Mumhan." This is Tissassan, about a mile and a half south-west 
of Kinsale, which is thus shown to have been in the Ui Eachach Tribeland. 

2.— From the ancient Latin "Life of S. Carthagus" it appears that St. Dimma, who 
flourished half a century before St. Finbar, was the first Bishop of Cork. See "Vitae 
Sanctorum Hiberniae." Edidit Carolus Plummer, 1910, p. 183. "He was the son of 
Cormac of the tribe of Eacaidh"; this Cormac was the brother of the Chieftain 
Aedh TJargarbh (a quo Cineal Aodha), ancestor of Mahon. "Et dixit Carthagus 
Exi cito ad regionem Hui Eachach," &c., &c. "Go at once, to the land of the Ui Eachach 
in South Munster, for there will be your resurrection, and your own tribe will 
have an internecine warfare if you do not arrive in time to hinder it. And Bishop 
Dimma went to his own country . . . and preaching the Divine precept made peace 
among them; and he built a monastery in his own country, which he offered with all 
his 'parochia' to S. Carthagus," who, however, is not said to have accepted the offer. 
Dimma died ministering as Bishop in Ui Eachach Mumhan, i.e., the tribeland which 
after St. Finbar's time began to be called the Diocese of Cork. 

3.— According to the Carew Calendar, 1592, a "composition for cesse" was signed by 
two proprietors in Ivagha in Sept., 1592. There was then no Chieftain, as Conor Fionn 
died in March, and his son was a minor. 

4.— As regards the islands now "The Skeams," Dive Downes, who knew and used the 
modern name, found the name "Inniskean" in the ancient rolls of the Diocese of Cork, 
which are allowed to be "ancient and authentic" (Bishop Lyons, in 1588). The name is 
ot in the "Geneal. of Corealaidhe," but is in McC. Eeagh's Inquisition; it implies the 
ownership of some Cian of the Ivagha Sept, and it passed to Corealaidhe by some 
marriage arrangement, probably that of Finin of Eosbrin's daughter. 



'■'Ssi'jf^'il- .:;-y.sJfe'::>k&ii' 




1JL=J^'^,^ 

Ex hbris lacoETloscpni 
, ComtU deMahm y 




Bookplate ok Count James Joseph O'Mahony. 



HISTORY OF THE o'mAHONY SEPT. 



153 



HISTORY OF THE O'MAHONY SEPT. 
THE KERRY BRANCH. 




•« '^'™^ '"^'^iROM the two principal lines of Chieftains descended from 
Mahon, five Minor Septs or Families (as has been 
shown in Part V., page 98) branched off between the 
middle of the thirteenth century and the middle of the 
fourteenth. In the number above quoted, an account was 
given of the three Minor Septs that were seated in West 
Muskerry, the two others being "more conveniently re- 
served for the concluding portion of this History." 

Dermod Mor, Chieftain of Ivagha, who was alive, according to the 
"Munster Annals," in a.d. 1319, and is said to have died in 1327, arranged, 
before his death, that Rosbrin Castle^ and eighteen ploughlands along 
with it should be given to his two sons, Donal and Dermod. He was 
succeeded by his eldest son, Finin. The new Chieftain refused to carry 
out the provision made for his brothers. Donal and Dermod decided to leave 
Ivagha, taking with them whatever they possessed and some^ personal 
adherents amongst the clansmen. Dermod "went to Desmond" (a name 
then confined to MacCarthy More's country in Kerry), and received a 
hospitable welcome and a settlement from MacCarthy More, who from 
the interest he took in the two brothers, is considered to have been a rela- 
tive of the late Chieftain of Ivagha. Donal, the elder of the two, went to 
Barrett's Country, of which MacCarthy Mor was then overlord,^ and most 
probably by MacCarthy's authority or influence obtained all or some of 
the ploughlands of the small parisTi of Kilnaglory. The tribal genealogists 
of Ivagha kept track of the descendants of the two refugee brothers, as 
may be seen in Genealogical Table No. III. (supra) under the headings of 
"O'Mahony of Kilnaglory" and "O'Mahony of the Sliocht Dermod Og of 
Desmond." 

There are no materials known to the present writer for an account of 
the Kilnaglory sub-sept before the date of its extinction. We learn from 
an Irish Geneal. MS. (23 G. I., R. I. Acad.) that the last head of this family, 
a contemporary of the last, or nominal, Chieftain of Ivagha (1650), was 
David O'Mahony, and we find in the "Census of 1659" that there were 
twelve bearing that surname in Kilnaglory Parish, together with some 
"McDaniels and McShanes," most probably of that same surname, which 
was omitted according to colloquial usage, as e.g., MacCarthy of Blarney 

^ -pMAItAtnilH JUtI fAS All ArAIH A Clll-Q nOf Xi^WW AJUf OCC VeA-pAinil TDeAJ . . . AJUf 

nion pAoitri V^^S'" 1^' ""^ ^t^'5 V^ "^^ f AjA-oAjt An ciji. *Oo cuai-6 "OiAiimtut) 50 'OeA|'- 
nnitiiAti 50 m4cCA|itA, Agup piiActi f Ailre Ajiif fOfZA, -]c. (MS. 23, E. 26, R,I. Acad.). 

2 So expressly the MS. quoted. 

.3 See MacCarthy Glas, "Life of Florence," page 33, quoting State Papers. 



154 HISTORY OF TIIEOMAHONY SEPT. 

in 1578 called himself and was called by others, "Cormac Mac Teig." 
No persons of the name O'Mahony appear among the dispossessed free- 
holders of Kilnaglory in the Cromwellian "Book of Survey and Distribu- 
tion," and it may be inferred that their freeholds were forfeited after 
O'Neill's "Rebellion" in 1601. There is evidence that among the citizens 
of Cork in 1640- 1650 there were a good many O'Mahonys. This is 
plainly implied in Bruodin's* narration of the awfully barbarous execution 
of Francis O'Mahony, Superior of the Cork Franciscans, ordered by the 
Governor of Cork in 1652. It may be presumed that most of those citizens 
referred to came into Cork from Kilnaglory, which was in its immediate 
vicinity, and this presumption becomes a moral certainty as regards those 
families which during the following century kept up the Christian name 
of David, which was not known among their namesakes of Kinelmeky and 
Muskerry. In striking contrast to the comparative obscurity of the race 
of Donal of Kilnaglory, his younger brother's posterity — 



THE KERRY BRANCH, 

had a prosperous and distinguished career. Dermotf'^s descendants gradu- 
ally acquired a large extent of land, and had multiplied so considerbly that 
(as we shall see later on), in a State Paper of the Tudor times, ^ they are 
described as a "populous Sept." Sept organization, in the strict sense 
of the term, was of course not possible for them in a Tribeland not their 
own, but at the period referred to, the Head of the Family was looked up 
to by his multitudinous kinsmen, and through them wielded considerable 
influence. The Branch survived the downfall of the parent Septs of 
Ivagha and Kinelm.eky, and of the Sept of MacCarthy More; it did not 
sink into obscurity even in the Penal Days, and contributed a large number 
of highly distinguished officers to the Irish Brigade in the service of 
France and Spain. 

The principal authority for the history of this Branch between 1327 
and 1680 is an Irish MS. in the O'Reilly collection R. 1. Acad., classed 
23. E. 26, which is in full accord with (i) the Leabhar Muimhneach copied 
by O'Cronan in 1739, and (2) MS. 23. G. 22. (O'Uongan MS.), but is 
somewhat more detailed than either of the latter, and comes down a 
generation later in its record of some of the families. It is mainly genea- 
logical, but contains several historical statements also. A comparison of 
this document with other sources or information, namely, (i) Inquisitions, 
(2) other State Papers, (3) Dublin Chancery records, (4) O'Rahilly's poems, 
and (5) the special pedigrees of some of the officers of the Irish Brigade 
(recorded by M. Cherin, vol. vi., 649), establishes beyond question its 
thoroughgoing and minute accuracy. The MS. known as the. "History 
of the Kingdom of Kerry," written about 1750, and published for the first 
time in the "Cork Hist, and Arch. Journal," vols. iv. and v., is an 
authority for the events of the writer's lifetim.e and of the Cromwellian 

*Briiodin's "Propugnaculum." See also an account of this barbarity by Lynch 
(Gratianus Lucius), Card. Moran's "Persecution of Irish Catholics," and "Aphorismical 
Discovery," Ac, a contemporary MS., edited by Gilbert. 

SLetter of Sir Warham St. Leger to the Privy Council on Florence MacCarthy's 
marriage, 1588. 



THE KERRY BRANCH. 1 55 

period, which he could have heard described by eye-witnesses. But, about 
Kerry tribal history in the previous centuries, this writer fell into numerous 
glaring errors, through not having access,*"' as his Editor remarks, to any 
of the Irish Annals and other indispensable records. Accurate informa- 
tion about the officers of the Irish Brigade is supplied by O'Callaghan's 
valuable History, which we shall supplement with some extracts from the 
Duke De St. Simon's Memoirs. 

Dermod Og O'Mahony, who left Ivagha in 1327, was alive in "Des- 
mond" in the year 1355 ; we have no record of the exact date of his death. 
His only son, Sedn (John), married the daughter of Aodh O'Connell, and 
had a son, Dermod, who was "alive in 1442," and married Sabia, daughter 
of O'Sullivan M6r of Dunkerron. He had two sons, Concobar (Conor) 
and Donal. Conor is alluded to in a document of the year 1471, as then 
living, and married the daughter of Geoffrey O'Donoghue, granddaughter 
of a former MacCarthy More.'^ His son was Tadhg (Teig), who 
flourished in the reign of Henry VIII., when Lord Deputy Grey was com- 
missioned to obtain, as best he could, by threats or diplomacy, "pledges" 
or hostages from the Irish Chieftains. In the "Calendar of State Papers" 
for the year 1538, three documents are referred to as containing an account 
of Lord Grey's proceedings, the articles agreed on, the names of the 
Chiefs and the hostages ; they are preserved in the British Museum, and have 
not been examined by the present writer. If Teig O'Mahony's name be 
mentioned therein as one of the MacCarthy's hostages (as has been alleged), 
that circumstance would show that he was a near relative of MacCarthy, 
as a remote cousin would not be taken as a hostage. But, however that 
may be, certain it is that Teig, now head of the whole Kerry branch, and 
the inheritor of the accumulations of his predecessors, was a man of 
very considerable property and influence, and was able to leave each of 
his sons one or more ploughlands. According to a practice then very 
usual in Irish Septs, Teig received a sobriquet — the appellation of Mergeach, 
an appellation which we find in the Annals given to the uncle of Silken 
Thomas ("Four M.," 1535), to Nial MacSwiney (1575), and to one of the 
O'Briens. It may mean "angry looking" or "pockmarked" or "freckled," 
but we cannot now determine which meaning was intended. The word 
certainly did not mean "wanton," as it was explained (confounding it 
with "Meranagh" or "Meidhreach") by Sir W. Betham, who hardly ever 
translated correctly an Irish agnomen. Teig Mergeach O'Mahony died 
in 1565.^ He had married a daughter of Dermod O'Sullivan Beare (ob. 
1549), and left eight sons. 

Dermod, the eldest son, died some time before 1588. Conor, the 

6The Editor blundered almost as badly in attempting corrections of the author 
on Kerry Tribal history. He says in a note that the O'Donoghues and O'Mahonys were 
driven into Kerry by the English in the middle of the eleventh century! The 
O'Donoghues migrated from the Co. Cork about 1020, and the O'Mahonys never went 
as a tribe or part of a tribe to Kerry, as is set forth above. 

7The dates given in the three preceding sentences are not taken from the Irish MS. 
Genealogy, which does not give dates or the names of the wives of Dermod Og's suc- 
cessors, but from M. Cherin's MS.; M. Cherin must have been shown documentary 
evidence for these statements. 

8M. Cherin's MSS. The name Aedh Meranach. "Aedh the Wanton" (Chronic. Scc- 
torum, A.D. 1079, note), probably suggested to Sir W". Betham his mistranslation oi 
Meirgeach, 



156 HISTORY OF THE o'mAHQNY SEPT. 

second son, died in 1578, according to an Inquisition held in 1626 (pre- 
served in the Record Office, Dubhn), which declares that "Conogher Mac 
Teig Mergeach O'Mahony was seized as of fee of the ploughland of 
Ballyaher, and that John is his son and heir, and is of full age. ' Dermod, 
the eldest son, had probably much more land, but his "Inquisition" has 
not been preserved. 

Donal, the third son, was called Donal na Tiobraide, from the property 
he held in the Tubrid, a district of Iveragh. Owing to the death of his 
two elder brothers, Donal had become the head of the Kerry branch in or 
before 1588. In that year he is referred to in a State Paper under the 
strangely distorted name of Donal Mac Tybert as "the Head of a populous 
Sept called the Mergies (recte O'Mahony Mergeachs), the Chief officer of 
MacCarthy More's territory, and the foster father of the yonge ladye" 
(Ellen, the daughter of MacCarthy More, Earl of Glencar, wife of Florence 
MacCarthy More). 

The English Government sought to prevent the marriage of the heiress 
of MacCarthy More, Earl of Glencar, and Florence MacCarthy, the Tanist 
of Carbery, as very injurious to the English interest. Naturally enough, 
the principal Irish in South Munster favoured the match as likely to con- 
solidate and strengthen Irish power. Sir Warham St. Leger, in a "Tract" 
sent to Lord Burghley on this subject, reported that "this evil counsel" 
did proceed from "the Lords of Counties in Desmond and the principal 
Officers about MacCarthy More"; he then mentions the chief conspirators 
by name : O'Sullivan Mor, Seneschal of Desmond ; Mac Finnin, lord of a 
lesser cbuntry; and Donal na Tubrid, head of the O'Mahony Meirgeachs, 
"foster father of the yonge ladye." A few weeks after this communica- 
tion was sent to Burghley, the dreaded marriage took place, and Sir 
Thomas Norreys wrote to Walsingham on July ist, 1588: "According to 
your orders, I have caused to be apprehended the Countess (wife of Mac-, 
Carthy), Mac Finnin, and ^Teig Mergeach (recte Donal na Tubrid, son of 
Teig Mergeach O'Mahony), as being privy to the practice," i.e., aiders and 
abettors of the marriage ; he goes on to say that he hopes soon to have . 
the other conspirators, including O'Sullivan Mor. Those arrested were 
imprisoned in Castlemaine, described in another letter as "a vile and 
unwholesome place." 

The "Inquisition" held about Donal's property has not been preserved, 
so we do not know the date of his death. In the "Book of Survey and 
Distribution" (a.d. 1657) we find that his grandson, ^^ Conogher, and Donal 
Og MacCarthy had between them 1596 acres in Iveragh, which they lost 
by confiscation. Several of Donal na Tubrid's grandsons were living in 
1680 when the Irish Genealogy (23. E. 26) was made out. From one of 
these descended Lieut. -Gen. Count Bartholomew O'Mahony^ ^ (of whom 



SBefore this name the words "Donal, son of," must have been accidentally omitted 
either by Norreys himself or by the printer of his letter as given by Mr. McC. Glas, 
"Life of Florence"; Teig Mergeach died twenty-three years before the events mentioned 
in this letter. 

10 An inference from the fact that Donal's property was in Iveragh, and that he 
had a grandson named Conogher (Irish MS. above quoted). 

iiCf. his pedigree (given by M. Cherin, and abridged in "Life of the Last Colonel 
of; the' Irish Brigade") with the Irish MS, 23 E. 26, which gives the grandsons and 
great-grandsons of Donal. 



THE KERRY BRANCH. 1 57 

more presently) and his uncle, Dr. O'Mahony, "Medicin du Roi" in the 
time of Louis XV., and a great benefactor of his exiled countrymen. 
Their family had settled at KnocUavoIa, Kerry. 

Finin, fourth son of Tadhg O'Mahony. According to MS. we have 
been following, Finin had four sons: Dermod and Conor "went to Spain 
with all their families"; John, who remained in Kerry, had a son who is 
mentioned as "James the Provincial." 

Maolmuadh (Myles), fifth son, and Owen, sixth son of Tadhg O'Mahony, 
"went to Spain with all their families," most probably at the same time 
and from the same motive, having been engaged in O'Neill's "Rebellion." 
More particulars^.^ are known about Owen, who appears to have been a 
man of energy and enterprise. He was a fast friend cf the unfortunate 
Florence MacCarthy More, and it was to his house in Kerry that Florence 
sent his eldest son when Sir George Carew was endeavouring to find the 
boy and retain him as a hostage. The "Pacata Hibernia" relates that 
Carew continually "importuned the bringing of his eldest son," and that 
Florence at one time yielded, and "wrote to Owen Mac Teig Mergeach to 
bring the child to Cork," but, having got an encouraging message from 
O'Neill, he changed his mind and requested Owen "to convey the boy back 
to Desmond" (Kerry). Owen joined O'Neill's campaign, and was in con- 
sequence reported to the Government as a "notable rebel" by Teig Hurley, 
a paid spy. Hurley states in his report that Owen, "despairing of pardon, 
fled into Spain with O'Sullivan Beare, and entering the King of Spain's 
service, became his pensioner," i.e., received a monthly pension, as did 
many of his kinsmen of Ivagha (vid. supra), while waiting for a commission. 
Maolmuadh (Myles), his elder brother, had, doubtless, the same motive 
as Owen for seeking refuge in Spain. The spy goes on to report that 
Owen came from Spain to London to see Florence MacCarthy in the Tower, 
probably to concert measures for his escape. Owen succeeded in returning 
to Spain without being discovered, but had the misfortune to lose his 
son, who came over with him and fell a victim to an epidemic then raging 
in London. See the spy's Report in Mr. McCarthy Glas's"Life of Florence 
MacCarthy More," p. 403, et seq. 

Donogh, the seventh son, is stated (Irish MS. 23. E. 26), to have had 
two sons — ^Conor, who "went to the Low Countries," and Kean (Cian), 
who became the ancestor of the well-known family, the Mahonys of 
Brosna-Kilmorna. An Exchequer Bill in 1709 describes Kean's grandson, 
Cornelius Mahony gentleman," as settled in Brosna in a.d. 1699. Down 
to his (or his father's) time none of the O'Mahony families appear to have 
settled outside MacCarthy More's portion of Kerry. Brosna was within 
the Earl of Desmond's territory, and, until the Confiscation of 1584, was 
occupied by the Earl's Harpers and Bards, subject to the condition of 
supplying him with necessaries, when he passed that way (Carew Calendar, 
A.D. 1572). The author of the "History of the Kingdom of Kerry" (pub- 
lished in this "Journal," vol. v., p. 233) says that ""from Daniel, who 
went to Kilnacluny [he meant Kilnaglory], in Barrett's Country, are de- 

I28ee Cal. State Papers, 1586—1588, page 110— "An order against Jenkyn Conway on 
behalf of Owen Mac Teig Mergeach, 8th Sept., 1585." Jenkyn Conway was a lieutenant 
of horse to the Kerry "undertakers," and a very grasping and aggressive member of 
thfiir class. 



158 



HISTORY OF THE O MAHONY SEPT. 



scended the O'Mahonys of Brosna." That statement is one of the author's 
numerous errors^^ about Kerry tribal history. He seems not to have 
known that Kilnaglory was in Co. Cork.^* 

Sedn, the eighth son of Tadhg O'Mahony. Regarding his posterity 
more numerous records are available. Some of his descendants became 
conspicuous personages in Kerry County history. He was the ancestor 
of the families of (i) Dunloe Castle, (2) Dromore Castle, (3) Dromadisert, 
in Magonihy, and Kilmeedy Castle, in Drishane, including one Co. Cork 
family, that of the present writer. 

Sedn, according to the Irish MS. already quoted, had two sons, "Don- 
chadh and Sean Og." Donchadh (or Denis) must have been the owner 
of a considerable amount of land, for, as will be shown presently, his 
younger brother was possessed of five ploughlands. Among Donchadh 's 
sons, according to the above MS. authority, was John, who became known 
as "John of Dunloe," and was the founder of the families of Dunloe and 
Dromore. John married Honora, daughter of Maurice O'Connell of Caher- 
barnagh. In 1665 the townland of Dunloe passed to him as the marriage 
portion of his second wife,^^ Gillen, daughter of O'SuUivan Mor. The 
Castle of Dunloe (built by the Fitzgeralds in 12 15) had been partly de- 
stroyed by Ormond in 1570 ("Annals Four M."), who left standing only 
three walls of the flanking tower. The Castle and townland are men- 
tioned in the Inquisition of O'Sullivan Mor in 1623, who bequeathed "all 
his lands" to his son, Donal, by whom they were bequeathed to his suc- 
cessor, the O'Sullivan Mor of the year 1665 (Kerry Inquisitions, R. I. Acad., 
and note to "History of the Kingdom of Kerry"). John Mahony rendered 
the tower habitable by building an east wall, very distinguishable (it is 
said) at the present day from its companions of the thirteenth century. He 
died in 1706, leaving two sons by his first wife, Daniel and Denis. Of the 
latter there is nothing to be recorded except that the Dromore estate 
was acquired for him in 1686, and that he became the founder of the 
Dromore line. 

Daniel, the elder, inherited his father's Castle arfd estate. He was 
a remarkable personage, who wielded a power throughout Kerry, in the 
very midnight of the Penal Laws, which can only be explained by his 
possessing an exceptional force of character. He greatly extended his 

iSThe Editor of tliat MS., Rev. Fr. Jarlatli, allowed this statement to pass without 
correction. Having in the Preface indicated some his author's mistakes, he inserted 
in the notes several errors of his own. Here is one: "Neither the O'Mahonys nor the 
O'Donoghues were in Kerry until the middle of the eleventh century (!) when they 
were driven out of Cork by the Anglo-Norman invasion!" In another passage, attempting 
a brief history of the O'Donoghues, he confounds those of Killarney with the O'Donoghues 
of Eoghanact Cashel, a totally different clan, who died out in the eleventh century. 
See note by the present writer, this "Journal," Oct.— Dec, 1907, p. 192. 

14 As the present History is not intended to come down beyond the beginning of the 
18th century, see, for a further account of the Brosna-Kilmorna branch, Burke's 
"Landed Gentry." Mr. J. O'Mahony, Broena, belongs to this branch. 

isThe above account of this "John of Dunloe" is sustained by (1) a Dromore pedi-' 
gree of 1730, made out for one of the family who married Count CouAray in France; 
(2) a Dunloe pedigree (in the Herald Office) of Colonel William O'Mahony of the 
Austrian Service. Both documents (the former more fully) trace John of Dunloe to 
Denis, son of John, son of Teig Mergeach O'Mahony. They thus refute the fiction, of 
quite recent origin, that the first Mahony of Dunloe was some unknown "Daniel from 
Cork" who married the widow of an imaginary Sughrue, owner of Dunloe. See also Sir 
BosT O'Connell's notes to "Life of the Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade," p. 50, vol. i. 




DuNLOE Castlh:. 




Dromore Castle. 



THE KERRY BRANCH. I 59 

possessions by obtaining nucldle interests irom the English absentees who 
had got large grant of confiscated land; he states in an extant letter" 
that he paid to them head rents amounting to ;^i,5oo a year — equivalent 
to three or four times that amount of money in our time. Thinking that 
Irish Catholics had sufl'ered quite enough lor ihe Stuarts, he "renounced 
the Pretender," and then applied for and obtained permission to keep arms, 
under shelter of which personal concession he armed his numerous re- 
tainers.^^ He applied his resources systematically to thwart the execution 
of the penal laws. The following is an interesting extract from Miss 
Hickson's "Old Kerry Records" : — "Daniel of Dunloe, as he was popularly 
called, troubled himself little about the rival merits of the claimants to 
the crown of England, his ambition being to maintain his own supremacy 
in Dunkerron, Magunihy, and Iveragh, and to keep out the intruding 
Palatines. He was an uncompromising Catholic, ^^ but not an unkindly 
neighbour to the Elizabethan settlers, with some of whom he was con- 
nected by marriage. The Chief of Dunloe used every stratagem to defeat 
the Act of 1661, which made "Papists" liable to "quit rents," an impost 
granted to Cromwellian soldiers and adventurers. Kennedy, a quit rent collec- 
tor, had dispossessed Donogh McSweeny, an ancient proprietor, and a whisper 
from the dispossessed McSweeny went forth to Donal of Dunloe, and all 
the power of that redoubtable chieftain was brought to bear on Kennedy. 
Kennedy got a petition drawn up to the Privy Council, Dublin, "from 
an unknown friend." The mysterious appeal is in the Bermingham Tower : 
"The humble address and representation of the loyal subjects in the Barony 
of Magonihy sheweth that Daniel Mahony of Dunloe hath for several 
years made himself great and powerful, that he hath four thousand tenants 
ready at all times by day and by night to do his will, that he lives in a 
Castle very strongly fortified, the strongest hould except Ross Castle in the 
County ; that he and his mob of fairesses (sic) are so dreaded for his mighty 
power that noe papiste in the kingdom hath the like. That he hath one 
hundred a year worth of concealed lands belonging to the Crown, that 
he impedeth the collection of quit rents, hearth money, &c., a wilful man^^ 
without conscience, very powerful for his strength of men. ' ' 

No action having been taken by the Dublin Castle authorities, a signed 
petition was forwarded containing substantially the same statements. 
"Since the Capitulation of Limerick, the said lands have been used by 
Daniel Mahony of Dunloe and by his father, John, deceased, and those 
deriving under them, without paying one farthing to the Crown. Daniel 



leSee Miss Hickson's "Old Kerry Eecords." 

i^The permission was withdrawn after a few years. See "List of Eomau Catholics 
allowed to retain arms in the year 1711, et seq." (Dublin Eecord OflBce). The renuncia- 
tion of the Stuarts moved the Jacobite poet O'Eahilly to class Donal among the "up- 
starts"— the planters and their followers. See his prose satire (MS., E.I. A.). 

iSThe families of Dunloe, Castlequin, CuUinagh, and Dromdisert remained Catholic, 
as did the Kilmorna family until 1792. 

iSThe memorialist was hardly an ideal authority on questions of conscience. "A 
farmer of the taxes," says Macaulay ("Hist. England," vol. i., p. 137), "is, of all 
creditors, proverbially the most rapacious." And he quotes an old ballad on the Hearth 
Money> GoUectorB :— 

"There is not an old dame in ten, and go se.Tch the nation thro'. 
That if you spaak of Chimney men will not spare a curse or two." 



l6o HISTORY OF THE o'mAHONY SEPT. 

hath three thousand followers and subjects, all of the Pope's Religion." 
The signed appeal had no more effect than the anonymous one. 

Mr. James Anthony Froude was greatly impressed by Daniel's anomalous 
power and the weakness of the Government which it implied: "The great 
peninsulas of Dunkerron and Iveragh and the other properties were held 
in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, on a lease of lives renewable 
for ever, by Daniel or Donnell Mahony of Dunloe Castle. The Viceroy 
might be supreme in Dublin Castle, but Daniel Mahony was sovereign in 
Iverry. . . It is hardly necessary to say that a Dublin Lord Lieutenant 
in 1717 was no match for Daniel and his four thousand. The memorialists 
submitted to their fate and to the Ruler that the genius of Ireland had set 
over them.^" . . The Castle was best pleased when it got least trouble. 
Daniel Mahony might rule in Kerry, Martin in Connemara, and O'Donoghue 
threaten a bench of magistrates with 500 rapparees, but the Government 
desired to hear as little as they might about administrative weakness." — 
(Froude's "The English in Ireland," vol. i., pp. 452, 454, 477). 

Daniel died in 1729.^^ An account of those who succeeded him down 
to the present century would be beyond the scope of this work, the pur- 
pose of which is historical rather than genealogical. 

We shall now return to the junior branch of Daniel's line — that of 
Sean Og (his grandfather's brother). We find the Sean Og of the Irish 
MSS. (frequently quoted supra) mentioned in a document in the Record 
Office as "John Mahony, Gentleman, possessor of the townlands of Droma- 
disart, Duneen, Knockanlibeare and Tuarnanonagh, who died in the year 
1674." This John, according to the Irish MSS., had two sons, Teig 
and Dermod. 

Teig, the eldest son, married about the year 1660, and continued to 
reside with his father at Droumadisert. In 1668 the Duke of Ormond, 
who had claimed for some years to be the immediate owner of several 
large estates in Kerry, finding his title to anything more than a head rent 
questioned, surrendered his claim in t]ie following notice: "For Colonel 
Mac Fynine, Lieut. -Col. McGillicuddy, and Mr. Teig Mahony, or either 
of them : — I do hereby give notice that I waive the possession of the lands 
enjoyed by me in the Baronys of Dunkerron and Glanerought, and shall 
expect hereafter to receive only the chief ries due to me out of them." It 
would seem from this that Teig had been associated with the two others 
above-named in the agency of those estates. 

On his father's death in 1642, he succeeded to the ownership of the 
ploughlands above enumerated. In the same year he acquired the Castle 
of Kilmeedy with adjoining land^^ in Drishane, Co. Cork, and some time 
after, five additional ploughlands in Kerry. Cut off fi'om the chance of 
fee simple ownership, he set himself to accumulate as many mnddle 
interests as possible, like his cousin-german, John of Dunloe. In 1686 his 

2 0Here follow the quotations above given from the memorials to the Castle. 

2iFor his characteristic compliment to his daughter Joanna and singular bequest 
to her, see Sir Eoss O'Oonnell, p. 51, op. citat. 

22in Title Deed No. 78, lodged v^ith Trustees of Forfeited Estates, 1700, Teig is said 
to have been "entitled to said lands under the Acts of Settlement, in right of his 
wife, as coheir and proprietor." She and her two sisters, in right of whom their 
husbands had a claim to the adjoining ploughlands, were McCarthys of Drishane, 
descendants of the family that built the Castle in 1445. 



THE KERRY BRANCH. l6l 

son John married Ellen, daughter of Stephen Rice. We get an interesting 
glimpse of bygone social arrangements in the -'"'Marriage Articles between 
Teig O'Mahony of Droumadisert, Co. Kerry, Gent., and his son John, of 
the first part, and Stephen Rice, Gent., of Castlemore, Co. Kerry, and 
his daughter Ellen, of the second part." It is agreed (i) "That John shall 
marry Ellen according to the Rites of our Holy Mother ye Catholic Church. 
(2) That Stephen shall pay Teig, in trust for John, Ninety head of cow 
cattle and 8 mares and garrans, viz., 20 cows, 20 heifers and 20 yearlings, 
on lOlh of May next, and the 8 mares and garrans on the same date, and 
10 heifers and 20 yearlings on i6th May, 1688. (3) That Teig Mahony 
and his wife, Shcely, have good title to the Castle and plowland of East 
Kilmeedy, in Drishane parish, in Co. Cork, which they are to convey to 
trustees for said John and Ellen for their lives. (4) That Teig has a lease 
for years of the 2 plowlands of Droumadisert, the house on which, with 
the 5 gneeves of land next the house, is to descend to John and Ellen on 
death of Teig and Sheely. (5) That Teig has a lease of the 3 plowlands of 
Cahirdianisk and of Kilewedane, Cnockanawlgort, and Cluondonigane, of 
which he shall assign to John the two plowlands of Cnockanawlgort and 
Cluonidonegane. " 

Besides the lands thus settled on him and those which he Inherited at 
the death of his father (who was alive in 1700), the same John O'Mahony 
acquired some ploughlands "near Sliabh Mis and near the Maine," accord- 
ing to -'^contemporary evidence. In 1700 he lodged his "Claims" and 
Title Deeds (still preserved) with the "Trustees of Forfeited Estates." 
In the claims it was stated that "Claimant is adjudged to be within the 
Articles of Limerick." But the Articles of Limerick were soon after 
treated as waste paper by the Dublin Parliament. He was deprived of 
Kilmeedy Castle and lands, which were sold,^^ with all the rest of Mus- 
kerry, in Chichester House, Dublin, in i703>. He succeeded In retaining 
most of his ploughlands in Kerry, some of which are bequeathed in his 
eldest son's will in 1727. He probably did not live many years after 1700, 
for he Is said to have 2*^"died In the prime of life." He was the subject 
of a really splendid Elegy composed by the poet O'Rahilly, who dilates on 
his lineal descent from Clan, his wealth and prosperity, and his generosity. 
O'Rahilly mentions specially his patron's fondness for the study of ancient 
Irish History — "Splendid student of the Annals of Erin.". The Rev. 
P. S. DInneen, M.A., the Editor of O'Rahilly, expressed the opinion 
(which the present writer shared for some time) that the subject of the 
poem was "John, the father of Daniel of Dunloe." But O'Rahllly's 
apostrophe — "O John, son of Teig, grandson of Sean Og," is decisive 
against that conjecture, and clearly describes the John of whom we have 

23No. 86 among title deeds lodged in Chichester House, 1700. 

240'Eahilly's Elegy (Dinneen's Edition). The title of the Elegy is " A\\ b^f Se^iJAin 
itleijicij til ttlAtJAifitiA." The Editor translated "Mergeach" in his first edition "The 
Eusty"; in his second edition, "The freckled," being unaware that it was not a personal 
but a hereditary appellation, and should therefore, according to usage, be left 
untranslated, as, e.g., "Florence MacCarthy Eeagh," not Florence MacCarthy "the 
swarthy." The appellation "Mergeach" for the Kerry branch was discontinued shortly 
after the date of this poem, and became quite forgotten. 

25The following is the extract from the "Book of Sales of Confiscated Estates, 
Barony of Muskerry" :— "Kilmeedy— Castle and ploughland, 501 acres, John Mahony." 

2 60'Eahilly's Elegy. 



1 62 HISTORY OF THE O MAHONY SEPT. 

been giving an account. From this poem it might be inferred that he 
married, secondly, a daughter of an O'Donoghue of Glenfiesk. His son, 
another John, of Droumadisert, made a will in 1727,2'' appointing as one 
of the Executors his cousin, Daniel of Dunloe. 

Returning now to Dermod, brother of Teig aforesaid (Irish MS. 23. E. 
26. R.I. A.) — he was doubtless provided with one or more townlands by 
his father, who was able to bestow so many on the eldest son (vid. supra). 
Dermod had five sons, the eldest of whom was Conor (otherwise Cornelius). 
In 1689 when Tyrconnell, James II. 's Lord Lieutenant, issued a general 
call to arms, fifty regiments of foot were hastily raised throughout Ireland. 
In Magonihy, Kerry, a company was raised largely composed of members 
of the O'Mahony gens; it was joined by three sons of Dermod O'Mahony, 
and the eldest, Cornelius, obtained the rank of Lieutenant. ^^ He and his 
company formed part of General Justin MacCarthy's army which besieged 
and took Bandon in 1689. He went through the entire campaign, in 
which his two brothers were killed ; their lands'in Kerry were, of course, 
confiscated. At the attack on Bandon he had saved the life of a Williamite 
gentleman named Hungerford, who, at the conclusion of the war, conveyed 
to him a liberal offer of a tract of land near the Round Tower of Kinneigh, 
Co. Cork, which he accepted. He died about 1728, and was buried in Kinneigh 
graveyard. From some feat of strength he acquired the agnomen of 
"Laidher," which descended to his posterity; a Kinelmeky family, south 
of the Bandon river, had a similar name, but was not related to him. His 
grandson and namesake, who, according to his headstone at Kinneigh, 
died in 1797, aged 74 years, preserved his sword and uniform, and some 
portions of the latter still remain. He communicated these particulars to 
his son John (died 1806), the grandfather of the writer of this history. 

Hitherto no mention has been made of a family which at the close of 
the seventeenth century and the earlier portion of the eighteenth became 
the most distinguished of the name, viz., the family of Colonel Dermod 
O'Mahony and his brother, General Count Daniel. In "Burke's Com- 
moners," and in Sir Ross O'Connell's notes to the"Lifeof the Last Colonel 
of the Irish Brigade" (vol. i., p. 51) it is suggested or assumed, but not 
expressly asserted, that the family belonged to the Dunloe^^ and Dromore 
line. But this was an erroneous conjecture. The family did not descend 
from Dermod Og, the founder of the Kerry branch, through any of the 
sons of Tadhg O'Mahony, the Head of the branch in the middle of the 
sixteenth century, but through his brother Donal. This appears from 
the pedigree in the Herald Office made out In 171 2 for the son of Colonel 

2 7ln the list of Wills in the Record Office we find "Daniel Mahony of Dromadisert, 
glint., 1762," and "Timothy of Dromadisert, gent., 1828." This family may be still in 
existence. 

28Eeaders of D' Alton's "King James's Army List" know, or should know, that the 
"List" is formed from very imperfect records— perfect ones could not be expected in 
a time of such confusion. Of some regiments only the names of two or three officers 
are preserved. See notes to "Life of Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade." O'Callaghan 
("Hist, of the Brigades"), who made further researches, says: "Among the officers of 
King James during the War of the Eevolution were several gentlemen of the O'Mahonys," 
p. 204. 

39The same opinion commended itself, at first, to the present writer, and was ex- 
pressed by him in a note written for the new edition of O'Eahilly. But after the 
discovery of the Herald Office document that opinion became untenable. 



THE KERRY BRANCH. 1 63 

Dermod, John, Captain in the Army of the Low Countries." The appH' 
cant must have supplied the names of his ancestors of the Kerry Branch, 
leaving to the Herald Office to add on the names of those of more remote 
centuries. He must at all events have known the names of his grandfather 
and great-grandfather, and the names which he gave — "Dermod and 
Daniel, sons of John, son of Daniel, son of Dermod," &c., constitute a 
succession that does not occur in the genealogy of the descendants of 
Tadhg, in MSS. 2^. E. 26, and 23. G. 22. (R.I. A.) and others. 



OFFICERS OF THE NAME OF O'MAHONY IN THE IRISH 

BRIGADE. 

As was shown in a previous page, the first "Irish Brigade" was in 
the service of the King of Spain. The exodus of nobles and clansmen 
commenced in 1603, and continued down to the Cromwellian period. Sir 
William Petty says that "the chief est of the nobility and gentry took 
conditions from the King of Spain, and transported thither forty thousand 
of the most active, spirited men." The names of some of the "O'Mahons 
of Ivagha" who received Commissions in the Spanish army have 
been already given from the report of an English spy, but, of course, the 
Spanish records would contain many more. In the time of James II. the ten- 
dency was towards France. The following is an extract from O'Callaghan's 
"History of the Irish Brigade": — "Amongst the oflficers of King James 
during the War of the Revolution in Ireland were several gentlemen of 
the O'Mahonys, including two brothers, Dermod and Daniel. Dermod, 
as Colonel,^" was distinguished at Aughrim and Limerick. Daniel, having 
attained the rank of Captain in the Irish Foot Guards, accompanied the 
National Army to France, where he obtained the post of Major in the 
Regiment of Dillon." In the War of the Spanish succession he had a 
career of extraordinary brilliancy, and became known in French military 
history as "le fameux Mahoni. " His defence of Cremona in February, 
1702, was the foundation of his fame on the Continent. North Italy, 
then subject to Spain, became that year "the cockpit" of the contending 
nations. Marshal De Villeroi, a Court favourite, personally brave but 
no tactician, was sent in command of the French and Spanish forces to 
oppose the great Imperialist General, Prince Eugene of Savoy — "impar 
congressus Achilli." Cremona, situate on the left bank of the Po, then 
in the Spanish Dominions, was Villeroi's headquarters. It was strongly 
fortified by a wall pierced by five gates, one of which, leading to a bridge 
of boats over the river, was known as the Po gate. Confiding in the 
strength of the fortifications, the French neglected ordinary precautions. 
By a skilfully arranged plan, rendered possible by the co-operation of an 
Austrian^ ^ partisan in Cremona, Prince Eugene, during the course of ten 

3OC0I. Dermod is erroneously said to have fallen at Aughrim. He is mentioned by 
MacQeoghegan in the list of troops lately arrived in France after the Treaty of 
Limerick, and new modelled in 1695. He died in Italy in 1710, according to the Herald 
Office document above referred to. H<» is not heard of in active service in the War of 
the Spanish Succession, having probably retired through wounds or ill health. 

•'^iCassioli, the rector of a Church. There must have been many Austrian partizans 
in Cremona, as 500 of Eugene's picked men had been secreted there before the surprise. 



1 64 HISTORY OF THE O MAHONY SEPT. 

days, introduced, through a disused aqueduct or sewer that passed under 
the walls, a sufficient force to seize the next gate, and open another that 
had been walled up. Before dawn on Feb. ist, 1702, after a night march 
of eighteen miles he poured in his cavalry through one gate and his 
infantry through the other, and had occupied the principal portion of the 
city before the French were awakened from sleep. De Villeroi and 
several of his officers were captured. For the completion of Eugene's plan 
it was necessary to seize the Po gate and keep it open for Vaudemont's 
five thousand men, who were to cross by the bridge of boats from the right 
side of the river at a stated hour. To execute this task. Baron De Mercy 
with his cuirassiers galloped at once from the gate of St. Margaret by 
which they had entered the city. Not far from the Po gate were the 
barracks of the Irish Regiments of Dillon and Burke, so named from 
t(heir' first Colonels. The former was commanded by Major Daniel 
O'Mahony in the absence of Colonel Lally, father of Lally Tollendal; the 
latter by Lieut. -Col. Wauchop. The Major, whose quarters were in the 
centre of the town, succeeded with difficulty in reaching his men, who 
turned out half-dressed. The two regiments were at once led to the Po 
gate, Wauchop, as senior officer, at first taking command. There the 
small "guard of the gate," consisting of an Irish Captain and thirty-six 
men, had been for a considerable time, by well-directed volleys, holding 
in check the Austrian cuirassiers and infantry. The combat that ensued 
lasted until near ten o'clock, a.m., when the Irish Brigade was completely 
victorious. Wauchop had been wounded, and the command of both 
battalions now devolved on Major O'Mahony, who thus got "the oppor- 
tunity of his life." He was ordered by Count Revel to fight his way to the 
Mantua gate, and in that march the chief exploit of the day was per- 
formed. Baron Freiberg disposed his cuirassiers so as to attack the 
(Brigade "in front, flank, and rear." But the Irish commander, promptly 
"arranging his men so as to face their assailants, on every side, received 
the onset of the Imperialists with an intrepidity that astonished them." 
The Cuirassiers were utterly routed, but another corps of them soon after 
came on and, headed by Freiberg in person, broke through the ranks of 
the regiment of Dillon, but after a desperate struggle they too were re- 
pulsed and Freiberg killed. ^^ Having complied with his orders, the Major 

Frencli writers call these Cremonese traitors, but most Italians looked on the proceed- 
ing from a different standpoint. They were very anti-French, as Louis XIV. says in a 
letter to Vendome. 

32The above account is graphically as well as accurately summarized by Thomas 
Davis in his ballad, "The Surprise of Cremona, 1702":— 

From Milan to Cremona Duke Villeroy rode, 

And soft are the beds in his royal abode; 

In billet and barrack the garrison sleep. 

And loose is the watch which the sentinels keep. 



Through gate, street and square with his keen cavaliers, 
A flood through a gully. Count Merci careers. 
They ride without getting 'or giving a blow, 
Nor halt till they gaze on the gate of the Po. 
"Surrender the gate!"— but a volley replied. 
For a handful of Irish were posted inside. 



THE KERRY BRANCH. 



165 



took on himself the responsibility of returning to the Po gate. "He judged 
correctly," says the historian of the Brigade, "for a fresh body of Austrian 
troops had just arrived. Stationing himself by the battery, he played the 
artillery at the building which the enemy had occupied, and swept theit 
troops away whenever they showed themselves." 




From Q,uiiKi/i Iliiioirt ililitaife de Louis XIV. 



But in thro' St. Margaret's the Austrian s pour, 
And billet and barrack are ruddy with gore; 
Unarmed and naked the soldiers are slain— 
There's an enemy's gauntlet on Villeroy's reiti. 

Here and there thro' the City, some readier band 
For honour and eafpty, undauntedly stand. 
At the head of the regiments of Dillon and Burke 
Is Major O'Mahony, fierce as a Turk. 
His sabre is flashing— the Major is dress'd. 
But muskets and shirts are the clothes of the rest! 
Yet they rushed to the ramparts, the clocks have tolled ten. 
And Count Merci retreats with the half of his men. 
"In on them!" said Friedberg— and Dillon is broke, 
Like forest-flowers crushed by the fall of the oak; 
Thro' the naked battalions the cuirassiers go:— 
But the man, not the dress, makes the soldier, I trow. 
Upon them with grapple, with bay'net, and ball, 
Like wolves upon gaze-hounds, the Irishmen fall- 
Black Friedberg is slain by O'Mahony's steel. 
And back from the bullets the cuirassiers reel." 



"Down to our times," says O'Callaghan ("Hist. Irish Brigade") "the piper of Munster 
has performed the air of 'The day we beat the Germans at Cremona.' O'Eahilly's 
'^'Illusive Vision" distinctly points at the hero of Cremona as the battle cock of Eath 
Bathlean, whom he hopes to see coming over to the assistance of the old King." 



1 66 HISTORY OF THE o'mAHONY SEPT. 

He performed a service even more important than these exploits, which 
is attested by the Due De S. Simon. The French Commander-in-Chief 
had unaccountably neglected to order the destruction of the Po bridge. 
In an interval between the combats "Mahoni went personally to him and 
persuaded him to send orders to De Praslin to destroy the bridge," by 
which Vaudement might have attacked and taken the Po gate. On seeing 
from the Cathedral tower the destruction of the bridge, Eugene decided 
to retreat. In the evening Count Revel sat down to write the despatch for 
the King, and conferred on the Irish officer, the real rescuer of Cremona, 
the honour of taking it to Paris. It contained the following: — " 
Les Regiments Irlandais ont fait de merveilles ; M. De Mahoni, qui 
porte la presente en pourra rendre un bon compte a votre Majesty." St. 
Simon, who knew the Major, and described him as *'un oflScier Irlandais 
de beaucoup d'esprit et de valeur," gives a graphic account of the excite- 
ment caused by the news at Marly on February 9th. He was in the ante- 
chamber, which was crowded with courtiers, while the Major was closeted 
with the King for over an hour. "On coming out, the King declared 
that he had never heard so good an account of a military event ; told as it 
was witTi great clearness and an agreeable manner. He saFd that he had 
promoted Major O'Mahony to the rank of Colonel, and bestowed on him 
a pension and a present of a thousand louis d'or for the expenses of his 
journey. "^^ The rest of this celebrated officer's career was spent in Spain, 
he having, by the desire of Louis XIV., entered the service of the King's 
grandson, Philip V., with the rank of Brigadier-General. Philip loaded 
him with honours in return for signal services that (it is not too much 
to say) secured him on his throne. In 1705 he appointed him Major- 
General, in 1706, military Governor of Cartagena, and soon after Lieut.- 
General. At the battle of Almanza, O'Mahony led the Irish regiment of 
Dragoons, and contributed greatly to the victory. In the campaign of 
1 710 he was appointed a Count of Castile. At the close of that year the 
important battle of Villaviciosa was fought between the Duke De Vendome 
and Stahrenberg, "the Second Eugene." King Philip was present by 
the side of his celebrated Marshal. A portion of his cavalry reserve was 
under General Val de Canas and the other portion under Count O'Mahony, 
and to these two Generals belongs the credit of turning an expected defeat 
into a decisive victory. Philip V. wrote on the day after the action to 
Louis XIV, : "Marshal Vendome, seeing that our centre gave way, and 
that our cavalry made no impression on the enemy's right, considered it 
necessary to retire to Torrija, and gave orders for that purpose, but as 
we were going there, we were informed that Val de Canas and Mahoni 
with the cavalry they had under their orders charged the enemy's infantry 
and handled it very severely, which caused us to march back with the rest 
of the army," &c. No more is said of Val de Canas, but De Bellerive, 
an eyewitness, wrote: "£»« night set in, the brave Comte De Mahoni, 
having no cannon to fire on tfie retreating troops, invested them on one side, 

33"Le roi prit plaisir a a entendre sur Mahoni et dit qu'il n'avait jamais oui 
perBonne rendre une si bonne compte, ni avec tante de nettete d'esprit et meme 
agreablement."— "Memoires de St. Simon." Dangeau and St. Simon considered that the 
Surprise and the Eescue of Cremona were the two most extraordinary events in military 
history. Voltaire used similar language. The current saying was that "Cremona was 
taken by a miracle and saved by a greater miracle." 



THE KERRY BRANCH. 1 67 

and then sent a drummer to Stahrenberg summoning him to surrender." 
Stahrenberg kept the drummer until next day, and escaped during the 
night aided by a dense fog, but had to abandon to the Irish General his 
"700 mules laden with all theplunder of Castile." "The King," says the same 
author, was so satisfied with the Comte De Mahoni that he appointed him 
a Commander of the Military Order of Sant lago, with an annual revenue 
of fifteen thousand livres." He was the only one of the Irish Generals 
in the French or in the Spanish service that held an independent command, 
as at Alcoy in Valentia, with six thousand men in 1708, and in Sicily, 
which he saved for Spain in the same year. His contemporary, De Belle- 
rive, the French military historian already quoted, summed up his career 
as follows: "His whole life has been a continual chain of dangerous com- 
bats, bold attacks, and honourable retreats." He died at Ocana, in Spain, 
in January, 171 4. His body must have been transferred for interment to 
Madrid, only forty miles distant. There is no record of his interment in 
Ocana, as the writer is informed by Don Vicente Lopez Martino, Parroco 
de Ocana, who has obligingly examined the records of the four parish 
churches of that town for 17 14. 

He married Cecilia, daughter of George Weld, of an old Catholic 
family in Dorsetshire, and had two sons (neither of whom left male de- 
scendants) : — 

1. James Joseph, born 1699; the sponsor at his baptism was James 
Francis Edward, called by his adherents James III., and by his enemies 
"The Old Pretender." James Joseph inherited his father's title of Count 
of Castile, rose to the rank of Colonel in the Spanish Army, and of Lieu- 
tenant-General in the army of Naples, then under Spain. He died in 1757. 
His only child, Cecilia,^'* married Prince Justiniani, and was thus the grand- 
mother of the late Prince Justiniani Bandini, Lord Newburgh (died Aug., 
1908, aged ninety years). 

2. Demetrius (Dermod) succeded to his brother's title of Count. He 
had risen to the rank of Brigadier-General in the Spanish x\rmy. About 
1760 he was appointed Ambassador of Spain to the Court of Vienna. It 
is a striking evidence of his merits that he should have obtained so dis- 
tinguished a position, coveted, ^^ no doubt, by the chief Grandees of Spain. 
The following extract from the (English) "Annual Register," 1766, affords 
evidence of his attachment to the land of his fathers. "On the 17th of 
this month His Excellency Count O'Mahony, Ambassador from Spain to 
the Court of Vienna, gave a grand entertainment in honour of St. Patrick, 
to which were invited all persons of condition that were of Irish descent, 
being himself a descendant of an illustrious family of that kingdom. 
Among many others, were present Count Lacy, President of the Council 
of War; the Generals O'Donnel, McGuire, O'Kelly, Browne, Plunket, and 
McElligott, four Chiefs of the Grand Cross, two governors, several knights 
military, and six staff officers, four Privy Councillors, with the prin- 
cipal officers of State; who, to show their respect for the Irish nation, 
wore crosses in honour of the day, as did the entire Court." 

34Througli her mother. Lady Anne Clifford, Cecilia acquired and transmitted a 
right to the Earldom of Newburgh. See Burke's "Peerage," art. Earl of Newburgh. 

3 5That some jealousy was felt by the Spaniards at Irish promotions, see in 
B&uterwek's "Hist, of Spanish Literature," Bohn's ed., p 387. 



1 68 HISTORY OF THE o'mAHONY SEPT. 

An original document signed ,by General Count Daniel, when Colonel, 
has been found by the present writer among some papers relating to the 
Brigade, in the R. I. Acad. Library. From this document his autograph 




01^1^ c 



ay^-T^ 




is here reproduced; it will be observed that the French "De" is used to 
represent the Irish "O." His son's Bookplate is also reproduced, ^^ in 
which the ancient Irish Motto of the Clan, "Lasair romhainn a buaidh," 
was inaccurately printed by the Italian or Spanish engraver. 

Besides the foregoing, only three O'Mahonys appear in some published 
lists of the Irish Brigade in the Spanish Service. "Don Daniel, Cadet, 
1715; Don Patricio, 1729; Don Jaime, 1803." But the records in the 
Archives of Simancas, examined at the writer's request by a Spanish 
gentleman (from 1700 to 1755, not as yet from 1600 — 1700), have been 
found to contain the following entries : — 

"i. Cornelio O'Mahony, Capitan de Dragones en el Regimento de Ban- 
doma O'Mahony, a.d. 1717. 

2. Don Diego O'Mahony, Irlandes, Capitan de Caballos, 1723. 

3. Don Dionisio De Mahony, Alferez (Ensign), 1733. 

4. Don Luis Francisco Mahony, Coronel (Colonel), agregado al Regim. 
Infanteria de Aragon, 1736. 

5. Hoja de servicios del Coronel Conde De Mahony, hasta el anno 1721. 
(Record of Colonel Count James Joseph, vid. supra). 

6. Hoja de servicios del Coronel y Brigadier Don Demetrio De Mahony, 
hasta el fin de Decembre, 1755. Afterwards Ambassador to Vienna. 
Count in 1757)." 

Cornelius O'Mahony, Colonel, who died in 1776, appointing the am- 
bassador his executor, already mentioned in the account of the Ul Flon 
Luadh Sub-Sept. 

In the Austrian Service, Lieut. -Col. William O'Mahony, born in 1760 
In the Army of Holland — John, Captain, 172 1 ; Cornelius, Captain, 1723. 
"The sons of Colonel Dermod are held in great esteem in Holland," writes 
the author of the "Kingdom of Kerry," their contemporary. 

In the French Service, the exhaustive De La Ponce MSS. mention the 
following : — 

1. Derby, born in Ireland 1718 (son of Daniel of Dunloe), Colonel v^ 
1778. 

2. Timothy, born in 1713, Capt. in 1745, died 1769. Regiment de 
Walsh. 

3. Jeremie, Lieutenant, 1789. 

4. Denis, Lieut, in 1783, Reg. de Dillon. 

5. Kean, same Regiment, Lieut., 17S7. 

3 6The copy of the Book-plate was kindly supplied by Mr. Peirce G. Mahony, B.L. 



THE KERRY BRANCH. 1 69 

6. Bartlemy, born 1749, died 1819, a descendant of Donal na Tubrid 
O'Mahony, Lieut.-General and Count. See many particulars about him 
in Mrs. O'Connell's "Last Colonel of the Irish Brigade." 

7. John Francis, son of Col. Derby, and grandson of Daniel of Dunloe, 
Chef De Battalion 1807. Being a strong Royalist, ^he is unfavourably 
referred to by his republican countryman Miles Byrne in his Memoirs. 
Colonel in 181 2 in the Irish Regiment. Colonel in Regt. of the Line (41st) 
in 1819. Count in 1815. Brigadier (Mestre de Camp) in 1823. He was 
alive in the time of Louis Philippe, and was succeeded by his son. Count 
Ernest. A Count O'Mahony who resides in Rue Dauphin^e, Orleans, is 
now the chief representative of his name on the Continent. 



ADDENDUM. 

The statement in Cusack's "Hist, of Kerry," and in O'Harte's compilation, that the 
dispossessed Chief of Kinelmeky took refuge in Kerry, and a similar statement made 
by another writer about the owner of Eosbrin Castle in Elizabeth's time, are quite 
unfounded. 

THE END. 



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